#its just so easy to make Kaveh suffer

[eggyboyoart]

Kaveh and Alhaitham from my most recent tiktok.

Its to the song 'Labyrinth' by Miracle Musical and I promise it will make sense if you actually watch the tiktok, i promise-

[gachagon]

Hey gachagon! If bluelock characters were in genshin what vision do you think they would have?

Oh my gosh I've been hoping for someone to ask this of me because its not like I haven't thought about this for ages or anything T_T But here's a list really quickly!

Isagi: Anemo bow (4 star) I think Isagi's always thinking about how best to move "freely" on the field or whatever, which is why I think he'd be another short anemo boy. If he had a kit I think it would definitely be focused more on EM sort of like Kazuha.

Bachira: Anemo Polearm (5 star) He's also very free spirited and his whole arc was about learning to play alone and by himself without having to rely on others in a game, or to play beside someone else. If he had a kit, I think it'd be an ER based one because of his dribbling.

Chigiri: Pyro Polearm (5 star because he's my favorite <3) In the first arc he was kinda sad and mopey and would avoid people, which isn't really like Pyro characters at all. But after his arc he actually is pretty friendly and open, and he's the more extroverted one out of Kunigiri if we're being honest, so I think Pryo does suit him. Chigiri is also very passionate about soccer to the point where he joined Blue Lock to find a reason to quit, and couldn't find it. If he had a kit it would definitely be based around something really niche and technical like reverse melt lol

Kunigami: Hydro Claymore (5 star) (Hydro is controversial but HEAR ME OUT-) He has a unique sense of justice but also wants to strive to help other people. And like a lot of hydro characters, I think he also suffers a lot from his own self confidence and self worth, as in I think he's a person who has worked really hard to feel as if he belongs and he's worked hard to uphold this "Hero image". After the Wild Card route though I can see him working hard on trying to be best "replacement" he can. I think he would function like Eula and be a physical character who uses their Hydro to boost their Phys stats.

Rin: Electro Sword (5 star) Electro characters are all about being outcasts but also subsequently leaders, so I think Rin fits perfectly for Electro. I think he'd be a really selfish DPS like Cyno that needs a shit ton of supports to actually drive. People would use him if they want to be sweaty in abyss.

Sae: Dendro Sword (5 star) Dendro characters are all about having this drive to continue learning about something and studying something they're passionate about, so I definitely think that Sae fits this considering he does care to find more people who make soccer interesting for himself. He went on what was essentially a study abroad trip for him, and made a name for himself while learning all about soccer. And when he came back he just tried to tell his brother all about the "good news" lol. He'd be a Hyperbloom focused dendro character like Kaveh, would have low scalings for Aggravate purely so you can't use him with Rin that well (just like in the manga!)

Nagi: Geo Catalyst (4 star) Geo characters are incredibly determined and have a pretty straight forward attitude. When they have a goal in sight they don't give up on it, and I think that fits Nagi perfectly. Sure he's lazy, but I can't see him ever giving up Soccer because it's something he genuinely does care about, and it makes the person he's with happy as well. Also when I think of Geo i think of kits that make being a DPS easy as hell. I think he'd be a broken support like Gorou.

Reo: Pyro Sword (5 star) Reo's whole thing is striving for things he wants, so that's why I think he'd be a pyro character. In most manga panels before the breakup, he's smiling and happy and literally dragging and carrying Nagi everywhere he can T_T The man went into a full on depressive episode because he thought his "soccer partner" chose someone else over him and gave up wanting to play soccer with him forever. I think he'd a full on Pyro DPS like Diluc.

Barou: Electro Claymore (5 star) Electro characters are all outcasts in my eyes, and I definitely think Barou fits that description given how he's practically pushed everyone away to be on top. He imagined himself as a nobody in a lame apartment after having to even THINK about passing to Isagi during one game, the guys got issues with not being number 1 T_T. I think he'd be a full on Aggravate character, but you could also use him in other places.

ahhhhhh here's all the ones I could think of for now because like this post is already so long and full of my ramblings about them lol

[nightdancerr]

It all started with one brick.

I don’t remember when exactly I laid it down –– or how, or why, or any of the other typical question words –– but I suppose it must have been during the night. At first, there was nothing, and then, suddenly, there was something. 

Sometimes it acted like an invisible rock for others to trip over, and other times it became a knob you could never quite turn at once. But, most often, it reared its head as a hiccup in my subconscious –– curling its roots tightly around my psyche. 

That single brick soon became a wall, and that wall soon became floors and ceilings and even more walls that stretched beyond a boundless horizon. I built rooms with no windows, corridors with no end, houses with no doors. A small village unwound itself inside of me, sprawling from corner to corner until it had cloaked every mountain and valley and sea with its strange settlements. The village had matured into a city –– and I was its only inhabitant. This was my Manifest Destiny. 

I found Maddie on the bus the other day, crying silently over a break with her boyfriend. It was a strange sight to see at first –– from afar she looked almost like a wounded animal in a sea of hard human faces. It was difficult for me to approach –– I was all bricks, walls, and lonely towers against her sand, glass, and gallant gardens. 

She cried and I awkwardly attempted to console her. It seemed as if the tears would never stop until she paused for a moment to tell me that she didn’t know how to be alone. The phrase struck me, and I instantly tried align myself with her –– to sympathize with her aching pain. But the words “me too” had only a short life upon my lips before they died in my jaw. Each bedroom, ballroom, balcony, kitchen, market, hotel, park, and winding street within me had been deserted from the very beginning. No coffee had been poured, no stories had been written, and no love had been shared. Rust caked the ground and a grey stillness persisted like a cloud in the air. It was only me in this city, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to leave. 

The acknowledgment of my city, and each of its unbending bricks, was far from easy. It had always been simplest for me to ignore any whisper of mystery and hide behind my towers. But hiding only amplified the mystery, and it served as an edict for the invisible expansion of city bounds. Cowering beyond truth and all the pleasantries of life had ostracized me into pits of despair, and I would never crawl my way out of those depths until I had begun to try. 

Reading and writing have been some of the most useful tools for emerging from that darkness. I’ve been surrounded by so much beautiful poetry in the past few months, and poets never fail to impress me with their mastery of language. My English class has been focusing on the sublime within Romantic poetry lately, and how noticing the fleeting nature of meaningful moments seems to amplify their power, and I’m enamored by such a nuanced concept. There’s one poem in particular that I took a liking to, and it’s been presented in full below.

Ode on Melancholy by John Keats

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; Make not your rosary of yew-berries, Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl A partner in your sorrow's mysteries; For shade to shade will come too drowsily, And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave, Or on the wealth of globed peonies; Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows, Imprison her soft hand, and let her rave, And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die; And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh, Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips: Ay, in the very temple of Delight Veil'd Melancholy has her sovereign shrine, Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine; His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

My French class has turned to poetry as well, examining Arthur Rimbaud and his craft. I think his use of imagery, word choice, and pacing is remarkable considering his age.

Le Dormeur du Val by Arthur Rimbaud

C’est un trou de verdure, où chante une rivière Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons D’argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière, Luit: c’est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue, Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu, Dort; il est étendu dans l’herbe, sous la nue, Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme: Nature, berce-le chaudement: il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine; Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine, Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

And then there’s a poem I discovered this morning that strikes like a battering ram into the walls of my city. 

Portrait of the Alcoholic with Doubt and Kingfisher 

by Kaveh Akbar

Even the trap-caught fox knew enough to chew away its leg, delighting (if such a thing can be said) at the relative softness of marrow.

Nature rewards this kind of courage— a kingfisher shoots into a pond and comes out with a stickleback.

Starving mice will often eat their own tails before ceding to hunger. The lesson: it’s never too late to become a new thing, to rip the fur from your face and dive dimplefirst into the strange.

Some people don’t even want to drink, aren’t tempted by the pools of liquor all around them. This seems a selfishness.

I love these poems. I love poetry. Who else can devise phrases like “dive dimplefirst” other than a poet? I find only delight in the fact that I’ll be reading even more amazing poems like these at Columbia next year. Every time I see a photo of campus, another brick falls from the outskirts of my city. The sun almost looks different in Morningside Heights, but maybe that’s just where happiness lays her head before falling asleep on the banks of the Hudson.

Soon I will become someone else. Soon my city of protection and mystery will fall to the fury of happiness and light. Soon I will no longer live in this lonely city where I am always king and peasant at once. Soon the idea of my portrait sitting upon your desk will no longer be a dream. Soon the shower will no longer be the warmest place in my life. Soon I will be in blissful love. And––soon after this––all of these songs of cities and poems and rings will only be stories to my descendants.