#let him have some agency jfc

[galedekarios]

i wish ppl would stop making every boundary gale sets for himself about mystra or his perceived insecurities from his relationship with mystra

[badolmen]

I can fix him*

*bad writing, underutilized gameplay mechanics, characters with unfulfilled potential, funded by bootlickers

[thetriumphantpanda]

two for the price of one | joel & tommy miller

Summary | Tommy has always been the loyal and doting boyfriend, the literal man of your dreams. Ready to take things to the next step, you soon find that Tommy is unable to have children. A family is all you've ever wanted, and neither of you are going to let this get in your way. Enter Joel, dark and mysterious and willing to do anything for his little brother, including fucking his girlfriend to get her pregnant. That's what brothers are for, right?

Pairing | Joel Miller x F!Reader & Tommy Miller x F!Reader

Warnings | Like, I literally don't even know anymore. Tommy is a cuck in this one, Joel is a dirty talking menace. Pre/No Outbreak AU. Talk of infertility, mention of consuming alcohol, Breeding kink, girlfriend sharing, masterbation (M), oral (F receiving), unprotected PiV sex, creampie, plenty of dirty talk, praise kink.

Word Count | 4.2k

Authors Note | I just want to shoutout the anon who left this request in my inbox. It rotted my brain and now we're here. Special shoutout to the JFC - specifically @sinsofsummers for telling me I could do this and @dinsdjrn and @cavillscurls for their help with some of the dialogue here. This is just filth. Pure unadulterated filth. Enjoy.

That damn piece of paper was haunting you, even from its place deep in the drawer where Tommy had stuffed it when he’d opened it and showed you. Its words telling you what you’d both anticipated but had wanted to prove wrong. Tommy. Infertile. Dashing those hopes of your beautiful babies with thick curls and big, beautiful eyes. He’d taken it hard, like it was an abject failure of his own manhood – the one thing he should be able to do beyond anything else, give you the child you so desperately yearned for, he couldn’t. 

There was a week of tension, where you treaded on eggshells, trying not to bring it up, despite desperately wanting to discuss other options. Then came his acceptance of his emotions, late at night, curled up behind you in bed. It started with a light sniffle, then you could feel his tears drip onto the skin of your shoulders, then the whole-body sobs as he held you, told you he was sorry. You’d turned in his arms, wrapped your arms around his neck and held him, whispering softly that it was okay, that it didn’t matter, that you had options. You could still have a family, just perhaps not in the traditional sense. 

Then came the weeks of appointments. You’d met with an adoption agency first. They’d talked you through the application process, what they expected of you, talked about the type of family you want, but Tommy had been adamantly against it for your first child. He wanted something borne of your blood, of your flesh, even if it wasn’t his that joined it. 

Then there were the medical appointments talk of special drugs Tommy could take, or the possibility of IVF, even a sperm donor. It had started to look like these could be an option until the cost was placed in front of you. There was no way either of you could afford it, not even together, not even if you sold the house for something smaller. You’d reached the end of the line with no answers and the thought that you’d have to resign yourself to being childless. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? You could take all the love you’d wrapped up for a baby and put it somewhere else. You could love your niece Sarah harder, give some of it to the children you worked with each day at the school – you didn’t need to be a mother to feel complete. The longer you sat with it though, the more you felt something missing. The end of the line was frustrating and lonely. That was, until Tommy came up with an alternative. 

It's late on a Thursday evening. You’ve just cleaned up from dinner and you’re lounging on the couch with Tommy’s arms wrapped around you, your head resting on one of his shoulders. 

“Can I ask you somethin’?” He muses above, settling his lips on the crown of your head. 

“Always.” You squeeze the hand you’re resting on his thigh. 

“What if we ask Joel?” 

“To fix the back steps?” You ask, referencing the rotting steps that had needed sorting since winter cleared, “Can’t you just do it yourself?” 

“No sugar,” He clears his throat, “Y’know what, forget I said anythin’.” 

“Tommy,” You grumble, pushing yourself off his shoulder, you rest an arm across the back of the couch where he’s sitting, “You can’t just say that and not elaborate.” 

He’s nervous. You can see the bouncing of his knee, something you’d clocked was a nervous habit on your first date. He’s also running a hand along the back of his neck, exactly what he always does when he’s got to say something difficult. You can also see the start of prickles of sweat on his brow. He’s not just nervous, he’s uncomfortable. You rest a hand on his shoulder, the way he’d taught you to do it when you’d first met, when he was still grappling with the anxiety and PTSD of being a veteran. 

“I’m worried I’m gonna scare you, sugar.” 

You run a hand through his thick head of curls, “Tommy, I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Promise to just hear me out before freaking out, okay?” 

You stick your pinky up, motioning for him to join his own with yours, “Pinky swear, Tommy Miller.” 

 “What if we ask Joel, you know….” He trails off, mouth opening and closing like a fish as he searches for the words he needs, “Fuck, I don’t even know how to say it.” 

“Just take a deep breath and say it all at once.” 

He takes a deep breath in like you instructed, blowing it out through his mouth, “What if we ask Joel to help with gettin’ you pregnant?” 

It takes a minute for what he’s said to properly sink it. Your first train of thought, stupidly, is that Joel is a carpenter, not a doctor, so there’s no possible way he’s qualified to help with this. Then it washes over you all at once. Heat prickling at your cheeks, breath hitching in your throat, you think you might be sick. 

“You want me to sleep with your brother?” You ask, tone coming out far more accusatory than intended, you soften your expression and squeeze his shoulder when you notice how hurt he looks. 

“Well, it certainly ain’t my first option, or the second and third for that matter,” He sighs, “Look, it was stupid, forget I asked.” 

He moves to get up from the couch, but you’re dragging him back down, fingers gripped around his wrist, “It’s not stupid Tommy, but you gotta help me understand how this is an option.” 

He’s looking at you now, big brown eyes with a hint of sadness staring into your own. He cups your cheek in one of his palms, “I know how bad you want this sugar, how much you want a family,” He leans in to press a chaste kiss to your lips, “And I’m sorry I can’t give that to you, sorry we can’t afford the fancy drugs that would make this easier,” He sighs deeply, “The only option we have is to do somethin’ like this, and if I’m gonna let another man touch you, I want it to be someone I trust, and he’s the only person I would ever trust with this,” He rubs a hand over his face, “Least I know it might have a chance of lookin’ somethin’ like me too, instead of goddamn Steven from Ohio or whoever they’d use.” 

You feel your gut twist when he speaks. This absolutely batshit crazy idea is actually coming from an incredible place of care. He knows you want a child; lord knows you were trying your hardest together to make it happen before that damn piece of paper had to go and ruin it all. 

“You wouldn’t find it weird, knowing I’d had sex with your brother?” 

“Well, it doesn’t mean anythin’, does it baby?” 

“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” You shrug, it was just a means to an end, “You think he’ll agree?” 

“I don’t know baby,” He answers honestly, wrapping you back into his arms, “I’ll take him out this weekend, ask him and see what he thinks.” 

There’s still something here that doesn’t sit right with you. Sure, it makes sense, and of all the people who you could choose for yourself you’d probably have settled on Joel too. Stoic and sensible Joel, brooding and grumpy Joel. He’d always been kind, had welcomed you into the family with open arms, praised you multiple times for finally keeping his brother on the straight and narrow. He was a good man, loved his little girl with all his heart, would never hurt a hair on your head, but you were still uncomfortable. 

“If he does agree,” You shift nervously on the couch, “I want you to be there.” 

“You don’t trust him?” 

“No, of course I trust him Tommy,” You sigh, “I’d just feel more comfortable if you were there.” 

“Anythin’ for you, sugar.” 

It’s early on Sunday morning when Tommy rolls into bed, 3am to be exact, smelling of whiskey to tell you he’s finally asked Joel to help you. He slinks onto bed and wraps his arms around your waist, kissing over your neck and down your shoulder to wake you. When you finally grumble and admit you’re very muchawake now, with his hand gripping your hip, he’s speaking in a hushed whisper. 

“He said yes.” 

“He take much convincing?” You ask, shuffling around in his arms so you’re facing him, his face gripped in your palms. 

“He was wary, thought I’d lost my mind for a good few minutes,” Tommy leans forward, pressing a kiss to your lips, “Told him it was my idea and you’d thought the same, but he came around, think he knows how much we both want this.” 

A part of you had thought he’d say no. That there was no way that stoic, sensible Joel would ever consider sleeping with his brother’s girlfriend in order to knock her up, but he’d proved himself a man of many surprises before. As Tommy presses kisses to your lips and settles you both to sleep, there’s the bubbling of nerves in your belly, of doubt. Are you really doing the right thing? Is this going to make the dynamic between the three of you awkward as hell? Sure, you’re all grown adults and this is just a means to an end, but there’s still the unknown of what comes after.  

Tommy goes out that morning and brings back a bag, filled with ovulation tests and, perhaps a little prematurely, pregnancy tests. You do one of the ovulation tests that morning and as expected, the screen shows a sad face, gratefully showing you that you still have time to prepare for what you’re going to do. Three days later when you do the test again, there’s a grinning happy face, almost taunting you that it’s time to face the music. You show the test to Tommy, who places a palm on the back of your head, bringing your forehead to his lips. He murmurs that he’ll tell Joel, and that’s how not even twenty-four hours later, it really is time to bite the bullet. 

It's late, Joel having insisted that he needed to make sure Sarah was settled and asleep before he came over. You’re sitting at the foot of the bed, legs dangling aimlessly whilst you wait. You really had no idea how this was going to play out, so you’d dressed yourself in a simple cotton nightdress, silk robe tied around your middle for extra coverage. There was an empty whiskey tumbler on the nightstand. You’d had three, maybe four? Enough to take the edge off, but not too much that you weren’t aware of what was happening. 

You hear the doorbell chime and then Tommy’s heavy footsteps downstairs as he opens the door. You can hear his voice and Joel’s mingling together, but you can’t decipher what either are saying. You probably don’t want too either. What could two brothers’ possibly have to say to each other when one is getting ready to sleep with the others girlfriend? You listen to them talk for a bit before you can hear two sets of feet ascending the stairs. You stand from the bed, wrapping your arms around yourself for another layer of comfort when there’s a knock at the door. 

“Come in!” You call, bouncing nervously from foot to foot. 

The door swings open and Joel is stood there, dressed in his usual attire, dark wash jeans and a black t-shirt, work boots obviously discarded downstairs, Tommy knew you hated people tracking dirt into the house. He takes a moment to take the sight of you in and you think you must look ridiculous, silk robe making way to bare legs – it had seemed like such a good idea at the time, he could just push the material up, do what he needed to do and be gone, but now you wonder if it looks like you’re trying to seduce him. 

“Hey sweetheart,” Joel’s voice is soft and when you look into his eyes, they are too, and it does put you at some ease, “C’mere.” He’s motioning for you to step closer, opening his arms so he can pull you into a hug. 

You’ve hugged Joel hundreds of times before this, in much the same way. One of his arms wrapped around your shoulders, the other squeezing into the middle of your back. It’s usually friendly, meaningless really, but when you take in the press of his broad frame, you can’t help but realise you’re going to know him far more intimately than you’d ever imagined by the end of the night. 

He releases you and you’re semi-aware that Tommy has slunk into the room behind his brother, he’s leaning against the wall as he watches Joel take hold of your hand, guiding you back to sit on the bed where you had been before. God, you think, he’s not wasting his time, he wants this to be over just as much as I do. You look up at his broad frame towering over you, if this was anyone else, you’d be intimidated, but he’s still got that soft look to his brown eyes. He shocks you next, cupping your jaw in his hand and running his calloused thumb over your bottom lip. 

He turns his head to Tommy, “You wanna tell me what she likes?” 

Oh. Oh. You’d expected something much more clinical than this. You’d never imagined he’d work to make sure you enjoyed it. You also turn your head in Tommy’s direction. He’s still leant against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other with his arms crossed. 

“She likes getting her pussy eaten, don’t you baby?” 

Joel is gently coaxing your face back to look at him, staring directly into your eyes, “That right, darlin’?” You look up at him as you nod, mouth open a little in shock, “Wanna make sure you enjoy this,” He’s saying, “Gonna take real good care of you.” 

Then, he’s dropping to his knees at the front of the bed, shifting so your legs are draped over his wide shoulders. Whilst Joel is focused on kissing trails from your knee, slowly up the expanse of your thigh, you look to Tommy, who has moved from the wall to sit in the small chair in the corner of the room that you would usually use to read in. He gives you a nod and a small smile, silently telling you to enjoy yourself. Your turn your attention back to Joel between your legs, who has slowly hitched up the cotton of your nightdress to pool at your hips, exposing your pussy to him. 

You can feel his hot breath skittering across your skin and there’s an anticipation building that you hadn’t expected. You’re moving your hips, almost subconsciously, to chase the relief you know his mouth was about to bring. Joel has his big palms on your hips then, holding you steady before he’s licking up the length of your pussy, tongue dipping ever so gently between your folds to find your clit. You let out a shaky breath that you hadn’t noticed you were even holding in, then Joel is moving again, tongue dipping into the entrance of your pussy, licking all the way up again before he’s laser focused on your clit. 

Your hands instinctively rake through his hair, gripping the strands between your fingers to keep him in place as he uses the tip of his tongue to run tight, wet circles to your bundle of nerves. You’re propping yourself up with a hand on the mattress behind you whilst the other keeps its place locking in Joel’s hair. Then, you’re actually grinding your pussy into his mouth, desperate for more but scared to ask for it. 

“It’s okay baby,” You hear Tommy speak from his place on the chair, “We want you to feel good, don’t be shy about askin’.” 

You look down between your thighs and see Joel looking up at you, mouth still latched to your aching pussy, “Joel,” You groan, “Fingers, please.” 

“So polite, darlin’.” He murmurs against your skin before he’s doing as you asked. 

He’s still showering your clit with attention, the sounds of his literal slurping doing nothing to stop the flush of arousal you’re feeling right now, as he pushes two of his thick fingers inside your slick cunt. You don’t know what you’d expected of Joel in this kind of scenario, perpetually single Joel, who never really seemed interested in anyone. You knew now, as he was curling those fingers inside of you, pressing into the spot that had you crying out and gripping his hair tighter than ever, that it wasn’t because of his abilities that he was single. 

“Fuck, holy shit Joel, I think….” 

“You gonna come for him baby?” You hear Tommy ask from the corner of the room. 

“I think…” You let out a sharp cry, “Don’t stop.” 

And he doesn’t. He keeps thrusting his fingers into your pussy, tongue still running those tight circles over your bud, but now he latches his lips around it and sucks, actually sucks at your clit. You’re lost. Your elbow buckles and you collapse on your back onto the bed, crying out a string of expletives as Joel works you through your high. Pleasure has burst across your skin, finding every single possible nerve ending and setting you on fire, your thighs are gripping his face as you ride out the last of the shuddering aftershocks on his fingers, pussy walls fluttering around them as you try and catch your breath. 

You can feel Joel recoiling from between your thighs. You can hear the sound of him undoing his belt and then it clattering to the floor. You use your weak arms to push yourself up the length of the bed, head settling in the pile of pillows at the top. You turn your face to Tommy and gasp, hunger igniting in your belly at what you see. Somewhere in the middle of Joel shattering your world between your thighs, Tommy has shucked his jeans and underwear down just enough to free his cock. He’s using his fist to work himself in slow strokes at the sight of you. 

You can feel Joel’s body clambering onto the mattress with you, settling between your thighs with his wide hips spreading your legs an obscene amount to accommodate him. He’s taking hold of your jaw in his hand, dragging your attention back to his face, “You’re fuckin’ me tonight pretty girl,” He growls, “Eyes on me.” 

It isn’t a torturous job by any means. Joel is weathered, his skin holding the early sign of wrinkles at his eyes, beard starting to grey, but you can’t deny that he’s handsome. Especially when he’s looking at you with eyes that are begging to devour you. He sits back on his knees, taking hold of the belt that is keeping your robe shut across your body to undo the loose knot you’d tied in it. He’s dragging you up by a wrist just far enough to shuck the material from your shoulders, laying you back down to play with the straps of your nightdress. 

“Can I undress you properly, darlin’?” He asks. 

You gulp. Finally noticing that he’s stripped to just his boxers, outline of his incredibly hard cock visible when you let your eyes drag down that far. 

“Go on baby,” Tommy encourages from across the room, “Let him see how beautiful you are.” 

Your eyes are back to holding court with Joel’s own and you nod. He’s pulling you up by the wrist again, sitting you up so he can drag that final bit of material off your body. You lie back down and watch as his eyes drag over every single inch of your skin. 

“Pretty as a fuckin’ picture.” 

He’s got those wide palms dragging down the curves of your sides, holding you in place to just watch you for a second before he’s hooking his thumbs into his underwear and dragging them down his thighs, freeing his cock. He’s fisting himself a few times before he hooks your knees over his arms and slides himself into your waiting cunt. 

It’s all you can do to let out a high-pitched moan at the intrusion, but fuck he feels good. You look up at his face, eyes closed and breathing deeply as he stills inside you once he’d buried in you to the hilt. 

“So fucking tight, darlin’,” He groans as he pulls himself almost all the way out before starting the long, torturous thrust back inside you, “So fuckin’ perfect, ain’t ya?” 

“Fuck Joel,” You throw your head back into the pillow, “Feel so good inside me.” 

He’s picking up the pace now, thrusting into you in earnest now. The angle he’s got you folded into means his cock in brushing that fucking spot inside you that is driving you crazy, raising goosebumps and setting you on fire, drawing high-pitched whines from your throat whenever he finds it. 

“Touch yourself baby,” You hear Tommy’s throaty request, you don’t dare look at him for fear of the sight of him finishing you off, “Joel’s gonna want you to come on his cock, so show him what a good girl you can be.” 

Joel is already circling your wrist with his hand, dragging your fingers to your pussy as he watches where his cock disappears inside you. Your own movements are sloppy but the slick that Joel’s mouth has dragged from you make the movement of circles on your own engorged and sensitive clit easy. It doesn’t take long for your second orgasm to hit you, clenching your pussy around Joel’s hard cock which hasn’t let up for a single second since he started pounding into you. 

“She’s so fuckin’ pretty, Tommy,” Joel’s voice is low and husky above you, almost desperately so, “So fuckin’ pretty when she comes like that.” 

“Don’t I know it, brother.” You hear his strangled reply. 

Joel is all of a sudden flipping you on the bed, your legs straddling his hips, palms planted on his chest to steady yourself. 

“Take what you want darlin’,” He’s groaning, “Ride my cock and knock yourself up.” 

You do just that, grinding your hips backwards and forwards on his cock with your fingers digging halfmoon shapes into the meat of his chest as you lean forward, bouncing on his cock in earnest. 

His palms are gripping the globes of your ass, knees coming up to rest on your bare skin as he starts fucking up into you, meeting your thrusts halfway. The sounds of your skin slapping together is obscene but oh so delicious. 

“You like when my brother fucks you like that?” Tommy’s deep voice draws your attention to him, he’s still got his cock in his hand but he’s thrusting up into it and you can tell just by the look on his face that he’s close. 

You look him dead in the eyes, breathy moan falling from your lips when you say, “I fucking love it, Tommy.” 

It all happens at once. Tommy is moaning and you can see him start to spill across his hand. Then Joel is gripping your hips, stilling your movements as you feel him start to come inside you, filling you up with his cum, your name falling from his mouth with a tangle of expletives built in for good measure. 

“Fuckin’ take it, pretty girl.” Joel is growling from beneath you, pushing his cock impossibly deep inside you like he’s begging your pussy to soak it all up, to get it to take. 

The room is silent save for the sounds of the three of you trying to catch your breath. You collapse, somewhat unceremoniously off Joel’s body and onto the mattress, placing an arm over your eyes to try and calm yourself down. Why the fuck was that so hot? Is all you can think. You’re only semi-aware of him shifting and gathering his things, only semi-aware of Tommy cleaning his hand off on his jeans to re-dress himself. You’re almost asleep when you feel the press of a kiss to your cheek, opening your eyes to find it was in fact Joel who did it, thumb running soothing circles across the skin of your hip. 

“Thank you.” You say meekly, reaching up to cup his face in your palm. 

“My pleasure, darlin’,” He smiles down at you, “I hope it helps.” 

Then he’s gone, following Tommy out of the bedroom and back down the stairs. You can, once again hear their muted voices, but this time, instead of setting you on edge, it lulls you to sleep. By the time Tommy comes back, climbs into bed and spoons you from behind, you’re almost asleep. 

“Did so fuckin’ good for me baby,” He murmurs into your ear, “So fuckin’ proud of you.”

Through the haze of sleep taking over you, you manage to mumble out, “Hope it works.” 

He chuckles, his body shaking your own where he has you wrapped in his embrace, “Me too baby, me too.” 

Within minutes you’re asleep. So asleep that you don’t feel his hand resting above your womb, silently praying that sooner, rather than later, he’s going to start feeling you swell there. Silently thanking the good lord for giving him such an understanding brother and a girl willing to do anything for him. 

[suzukiblu]

Some assorted Smallville headcanons from some of my assorted WIPs for Plot Bunny. They did not specify which WIP they preferred, so I just picked a bunch of different ones and went from there! 

Smallville does not approve of Clark Kent’s parenting style: Smallville is a tight-knit, proud little community where everyone looks out for each other that is full of people who want to continue living in a tight-knit, proud little community where everyone looks out for each other. The population at large still considers Clark one of their temporarily-displaced own and were therefore very willing to pretend to believe the “cousin” story when “Conner” showed up–right up until they found out it was NOT a story meant to help Clark’s displaced kid he’d just found out about settle into the Kent family in a low-pressure environment while he got over whatever obvious trauma had happened to him. Now? Now there are pitchforks being sharpened and torches being lit. CLARK JOSEPH KENT, YOUR HOMETOWN IS NOT MAD, JUST DISAPPOINTED. 

Kara gets to Earth on time and the Kents get a two-for-one special on free kids: Smallville is pretty sure Jonathan and Martha did NOT get this emotionally-fraught teen mom and her weird but adorable little baby from any actual adoption agency, Norwegian or not, but what’s a little illegal immigration and identity fraud between neighbors? None of THEIR business, no sir. Especially not if any strangers ever show up in town asking QUESTIONS. 

Jon and Martha, professional soulparents: Oh Jon and Martha absolutely will be clearing out the attic to make Conner a bedroom the absolute SECOND they get back to Smallville. And also being heartbroken about Clark, obviously. Everyone in Smallville is going to cry on them when they hear about Conner and be both very sad and very happy for them. And then they’re all gonna be Weird About Conner, who isn’t gonna know how to talk to ANY of them. He’s gonna get his cheek pinched by so, so many old ladies and SO many manly back-claps and it’s gonna be a pain controlling his TTK enough to actually let people do it. Meanwhile, everyone in Smallville, internally: oh he’s exactly as weird as Clark was when he first showed up, noted. Jfc, Jon and Martha, AGAIN?? WHERE DO YOU EVEN FIND THESE KIDS. 

Kon is too trans for this pregnancy shit: No one in Smallville knew a thing about Kon’s physical sex, so they’re all gonna be VERY surprised very soon, but also Smallville in general is gonna take that whole reveal like CHAMPS and just roll with it, even if it might require some people having some Talks With Their Kids And/Or Slightly Bigoted Relatives. Like, there will be a few assholes and a few over-inquisitive weirdos around, because nowhere is a monolith, but overall Smallville is gonna roll with it and be chill about it while ALSO being incredibly out of touch with the up-to-date terminology/language and having very little grasp of the minutiae of queerness in general ( aside from a couple of very quiet people who are gonna feel a WAY about finding out that Conner Kent is trans and went completely unclocked all this time, and seeing how most of the town’s taking finding out really well, and does that maybe mean . . . ). 

the one where Kon isn’t the father: Smallville has politely not asked any questions about Tim aside from if he wanted a baby shower or not, but also ALL of Smallville knows Tim was Conner’s “boyfriend” and Kyra is “his” daughter. That’s just gossip-by-osmosis that all of Smallville knows. A lot of casseroles and crocheted things and quilts have happened to the Kent household since Tim showed up pregnant and traumatized. And baby stuff donations. And babysitting offers. And general helpfulness in general. People weren’t necessarily close to Kon, but a lot of people felt very bad about what HAPPENED to Kon, especially after finding out about Kyra. Not that any of them actually KNOW what actually happened to Kon or the truth about Kyra, but that’s a clone of a different gene donor, okay?? OKAY.

[daz4i]

wait okay. instead of going to sleep like a normal person. here's how I'd change the ages in bsd (for those that have a canon age), bc no one looks their age/it makes the timeline feel weird, i wanna let at least some major past events breathe a little between one another. possibly controversial takes ahead:

atsushi: i like that he's 18 actually. he looks and feels 16 but no yeah 18 works better. I'd say 20-21 would be nice but that'd reallyyyy throw his backstory's timing off unfortunately

dazai: 25

kunikida: around 27-28

ranpo: 28 also, maybe even 29 (his whole thing is that he looks young for his age anyway)

yosano: 28 as well

tanizaki: like. he does look 18. but also 16 and 21 at the same time. i like him as a bit older than atsushi so let's say 19-20, and naomi as well while we're at it

kenji: why is he 14. it's not that he doesn't look 14 it's that i simply did not expect a child to be the muscle in a detective agency. so please make him like at least 16 which is only just slightly better tbh

kyouka: yeah 14 is chill in her case imo. makes her more tragic 👍

katai: 27-29ish as well

fukuzawa: at least in his 50s. maybe 55ish, or even more. he def looks like it and it fits more with having a son in his 20s

akutagawa: i do want him to be older. but making his age gap with atsushi bigger is weird. so keeping him as a 20 y/o it is, maybe 21 at most

chuuya: 25

kouyou: 30s. early 40s even. she is already so milf coded. finding out she's 26 in canon was straight up offensive i swear. come on.

higuchi: 21

tachihara: 22 or 23 maybe? (the hunting dogs don't have canon ages but i like jouno and tecchou as 26ish so that way he's still like the baby of the group)

hirotsu: how is that man 50. make him 65 at least. jfc. the whole point is he's been with the mafia a long time. ik they keep recruiting teenagers for some reason but give me a break. my dad is pushing 70 and looks younger than him

q: actually my issue with them isn't that they don't look their age (tho they do look a bit younger ig) but that timeline wise?? they're so weird?? why did the mafia have a 6 y/o on deck that's just inconvenient for all parties involved. like i can excuse kyouka at 11ish but come ON. at least make them 10 in fifteen. or just bring them in later bc i just realized the timeline doesn't line up with the dazai and chuuya changes otherwise. man idk

odasaku: girl that man was NOT 23 when he died he should've been like at least 27 then

mori: late 40s or early 50s. keep the few years gap from fukuzawa maybe but he should still be older

ango: 29ish in the current timeline. or even 32. idk why but that number feels right.

francis: 45 at least. how is a 32 y/o man supposed to have a daughter old enough to study abroad...

poe: 29

melville: actually he is the only one aged correctly in this entire manga. bestie 🔥🔥🔥🔥

steinbeck: 24. maybe even older

lucy: 20-21ish. same issue as akutagawa really

louisa: 25 at least please 🙏

nathaniel: 34 maybe.

margaret: also early 30s. how the fuck is she 20. like kouyou this is straight up insulting 😭

mark: ageless for he is the spirit of youth and joy (yeah 22 is chill for him actually. he's like the taylor swift song. he'd love that)

mushitaro: tbh I'd make him more around 29 or even older than 30. like he would be a believable 35 y/o to me if needed.

nikolai: actually him being 26 is chill too. tho i wouldn't mind making him around 28-29ish too since i already aged up most 26 y/os so may as well go all the way.

shibusawa: yeah he can stay 29 too idm. i actually didn't know he had a canon age until now. cool!

i think that's everyone who has a canon age (excluding lns bc i haven't gotten to them yet)? aside from sigma maybe but his age is more of a plot device than a fun fact. and fukuchi is implied to be the same age as fukuzawa so, yeah just make them the same in this case too.

i did mess up the timeline myself with this. so lemme clear it up:

The War and the whole thing with mori and yosano still happened when she was 11, so 17 years before canon. that means mori was still in his 20s back then, no big change

untold origins still happened when ranpo was in his teens, honestly we can keep it 14, so 14 years ago, meaning fukuzawa was in his late 30 or early 40s. again not too big of a change I'd say

fifteen happens when. well. dazai and chuuya are 15. ten years ago. i don't want q there get them out of my sight (for now) let them be a kid for a bit!!!!! but yeah like in canon that means the previous boss's murder was a year before, 11 years ago. also while we're at it, stormbringer is also the same aka a year after 15

now this is where we shake things up just a bit. rather than occuring when dazai is 18, i think we can push the dark era to when he's 20 and still maintain the whole childlike thing he has going on there, it's not that big of a difference imo.

that means, 5 years before canon instead of 4, making akutagawa 15 back then, and ango 27 like odasaku.

also yeah q comes in at some point in the middle between those^ I'd say close to dark era than fifteen.

originally i wanted to make skk 26 but this started stretching things even more. bc now we gotta figure out how long dazai spent in hiding. and ig we can keep it 2 years and just make it so his entrance exam was 3 years before canon. again imo not that big of a stretch 🤔

idk why i said this changes the timeline a lot i think this is p simple. also lets ppl stew in their situation for just a bit longer which i like more.

thank you for reading. you are very brave and strong for pulling through. feel free to disagree with my takes but just be nice about it please. I'm also open to hearing other takes if you have any that i didn't consider 🫡 but again just be nice okay?? 🥹

[formula-fun]

ON TODAYS EPISODE OF LINES THAT MAKE ME CRAZY

this is a little long but I couldn't help it

"They’re back in the desert again for the first time since Charles was pregnant, on another planet again, the sand so unfamiliar from his home—from Flanders and Limburg with their thick forests and heavy rains and comforting warm food designed to stick to his ribs. It’s different from Monaco, his real home port, a dreamworld where he can find clear water and perpetual sunrise and Charles, most of the time. 

The desert is a dreamworld too, but different. It’s endless and ancient and inviting, the flatness of Bahrain starting at the edge of the tarmac and then falling off the edge of the map, like if they turned and drove into it they could go forever and ever. The hotel has a plate of things set out on the bed like he’s on his honeymoon, roses on a gold tray beside tiny dishes of sticky pastries and nuts. An hour later Charles is laughing in his bed as he licks honey off his fingers. 

“They’re just like in Capri,” Charles tells him, and the memory explodes on his tongue, a phantom ache of too-sweet. Charles’ face screws up a little every time he eats one of these, here and now—tiny bits of dough, perfectly round, alarmingly orange and shiny as glass. His mouth is shiny too, and they must be painfully sweet for the face he keeps making and the way he laughs after, delighted. "

these descriptions are actually insane,,,,,, especially the "tiny bits of dough, perfectly round, alarmingly orange and shiny as glass" for some reason is just lighting up some specific neurons in my brain I was just hand to my mouth reading and rereading

And then this

"Charles smells honey-sweet after, and after the race. His heat is on the way. Max isn’t sure if he knows it and is ignoring it, or if Max has noticed it before he has. It’s not common, but he does sometimes, and Charles has been distracted with other things.

When he comes to Charles after the race Charles kisses him hard and stinging. Charles likes his pleasure rough and unrelenting more often than not, and especially after a race. He wants to be pinned down and fucked across the mattress, but Max knows what’s good for him, and that won’t quiet his head down. He drags him closer instead, his skin hot beneath the blankets—drags him up and up, until Charles is sitting on his face, his forearms against the headboard, letting out little moans and frustrated sounds. His hips keep jerking like he doesn’t know where to go and every few minutes he tries to roll away entirely. Max doesn’t let him. He digs his fingers into his thighs every time he tries, forcing him through the slow, inevitable build of it until Charles falls apart against his mouth with a broken moan."

this is post suzukaaaaaa he's distracted bc hes trying to find a COURTING GIFT

also? jfc this is soooooo hot what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck 🕳️🚶

ok last bit

"You are very proud,” Charles protests half-heartedly, “if you think I need you this badly. I am fine on my own.”

Charles is teasing him, but it still stings a little. It’s been a few months; Charles has been on his own more often than not, or at least he has if he hasn’t been seeing anyone else. Still, it’s a sharp reminder.

“I don’t need you. You know that,” Charles says, and then his eyes are back on Max’s all at once. He tugs at his hair. “I want you. I always want you.”

I'm just,,,,, whattttttttt the fuuuuuuckkkkkkk

the way that his agency and independance and confidence in his identity is underlined throughout the fic almost thoughtlessly bc it's so obvious to both of them make me want to pull out my hair

the way that throughout he's CHOOSING him

ITS HIS CHOICE. THAT HES MAKING, CONCIOUSLY. BC HE WANTS IT. HE DOESNT NEED IT, BUT HE WANTS IT

im so in love with this series it's not even funny

☀️

jsfkdgksdfjsdkf hellOOOO WELCOME BACKK

this is a pro fried dough fic.....the dough in that scene is lokma which i have never had but which i NEED. specifically the ones from the photo in the wikipedia article like hhh theyre so orange and shiny and they look SOO good. every time the words honey or orange appear in this fic you can be assured that max is in a setting where he feels secure enough for self reflection and personal growth

🕳️🚶 <- this sent me btw so thank you for that hahsahshas

and both of these last two kinda go with the same idea of wants vs needs in a way?? they both started seeing each other originally because of needs but it's developing into want, and that becomes so important to them :( the whole thing is abt choice tbh, cause charles never exactly chose him to begin with and he didnt choose to get pregnant, but NOW he's choosing him when it's all over and there's no reason he has to. he doesn't really need him anymore. he's choosing him because he wants him!!! does any of this mean anything

[scoobydoodean]

I sometimes wonder if Sam would have made more sense if he'd been a 13 year old kid or something. I have watched a lot of films and tv shows where you have the "Chosen One" trope for the younger protag and the "Protector" trope for the oldest, but the younger one is a LOT younger so the dynamic makes sense and is a lot clearer. SPN muddied the waters imo by making Sam and Dean only 3-4 years different in age, it contributed to my dislike of Sam in a way because why was he babied so much?? He's not THAT much younger than Dean. You could argue that it adds to the tragedy of Dean being parentified at such a young age, when he was only a child himself, but also it adds to my frustration over how they each get treated differently by the narrative and the fandom.

So. This would make the perceptions of the people I was ranting about last night make more sense, but I don't think it's the story Kripke wanted to tell (he's kind of a fucked up guy tbh—like—happy he made two shows I enjoy but when I watch them: jfc Kripke you have issues bro—and sometimes you make idiotic commentary in your shows while thinking you are saying something very moral and correct). The truth is though, these fans really should be expected to analyze media as adults, and look at a man in his 20s, 30s, and near 40s and understand that he isn't a child, and he isn't intended to be seen as one—not by Dean, not by fans, not by other characters, not by himself... but that that desire to frame him as a child is the result of childhood abuse that is perpetuated and rejected in turns—often by Sam himself—because he doesn't know how to stop—and we aren't always supposed to look at it and think that the actual narrative is intended to be that Dean is responsible for his issues. We are only meant to understand that Sam is choosing to frame things that way at a given moment in time.

The story Kripke wanted to tell originally—in part—is about two brothers much closer in age, but who both grew up as victims of emotional incest acted out against the eldest. It is important, within that story imo, that Sam is actually an adult with the agency to make his own choices. 13 year old Sam is a more morally clear framework, but it... isn't that interesting if I'm being honest. I like this much messier story, about how the scars of emotional incest don't stop existing and corrupting relationships into our adulthoods if we let them. While Dean is obviously the primary victim of the emotional incest acted out against him (father and mother to Sam; emotional support to his own father) Sam was also a victim of how this abuse acted out against Dean warped his perception of himself, Dean, and John. He was victimized by a dynamic that placed him as a perpetual child with no agency (even as he neared adulthood—even in adulthood) and his brother as a perpetual adult with ultimate responsibility and control over not just Sam's actions but also some level of control over his own father's actions. The warped thinking caused by emotional incest leads Sam to convince himself, at points, that he doesn't actually have agency (and Dean is the one denying him it, and therefore needs to be rebelled against as if he is actually stopping Sam from doing anything almost ever), and it causes him to in the beginning, frame Dean as John's spouse when he is thinking about their childhoods, and condemn Dean for what he didn't do to stop it. The latter is much more subtle, and it's also tempered by the moments where Sam does remember that Dean was a child—such as in Something Wicked.

When Sam blames Dean for his own decisions, he is retreating to the framework John set them up in, where he is a child who can't be held accountable, and Dean is responsible (ex: "And when dad came home" in Dark Side of the Moon) because it's familiar to him—and also because Sam harbors an extreme terror about his self-image and finds it extremely difficult to face his own flaws because he's scared of what they say about him more largely as a human being (which is, frankly, Johncore—but remember—I don't think about "johncore" the same way a lot of people do). This is NOT an okay thing for Sam to do, but it IS very interesting, isn't it? The 13 year old chosen one protagonist... I'm not sure I would have watched that show.

I have read, but haven't reblogged it because I have still been thinking about it—some commentary by AngelsDean on how Sam... isn't actually special. He is not a special boy. He was targeted by a fucking evil creep during his childhood and temporarily got powers. I agree with this, and I think it is important to understand. Sam is not the chosen one. Neither is Dean. They are both Some Guy™️ initially. The concepts of them having a special bloodline wasn't even thought about by Kripke originally—he didn't plan to introduce angels until Gamble convinced him iirc? (And also wanted to do away with the special children storyline almost immediately because he said it bored him). Sam is not uniquely chosen —and if he and Dean were, they would be chosen for destruction? Because their role introduced in season 4/5 was to destroy the world as the weapons of archangels. Their childhoods were intended to get them to say yes. Their fucked up childhoods—their inability to deal with them—were intended to make them eventually destroy each other and the world. This is all why, to me, Sam being an adult is important to the story. I don't mind that these themes exist in SPN and that they are tricky to navigate. I do mind when fans I was ranting about engage with these themes extremely selectively and ignore larger context and other ethical considerations constantly in order to build a framework that protects their extremely fragile image of their fave.

[percontaion-points]

Client No 5 chapters 5 & 6

This book review contains discussions of SW; reader discretion is advised.

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 5

 My makeup was less intense than I would usually wear, but still enough to make me see someone in the mirror who wasn’t little Alison Mitchell. 

JFC you mean to tell me that she’s out there, giving her actual (nick)name to clients? How stupid can she possibly be?

“No! You were great. I meant that wasn’t why I asked to see you again. Yes, the sex was phenomenal and I can’t wait to do it again, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, and I wanted to get to know you better.”

I know that this is supposed to be a romance novel, but dude. Come on. Don’t fall in love with a SWer. 

I sat down on the couch, defeated and trying frantically to think up more things to talk about. I’d used all my regular material at dinner and talking wasn’t something I had to do a lot of. I was way out of my depth.

Ally insists that she’s a high-class escort, yet she hadn’t owned any nice clothes, and can’t think of more than a few minutes worth of conversation. 

“Is sex a requirement? Am I obligated to have sex with you?” 

That pulled me up short. I frowned. “Well, no. Technically you’ve paid for my time, not the sex. I’ve just never had a client not want to have sex.”

Another clue that she’s not half as high-end as she’d like to think she is. I’ve heard stories from actual SWers that a lot of their time is spent simply talking to lonely men. 

His eyes grew dark as he looked up at me, and when I reached my hand down to help him up, he took it.

Chapter 5 summary: Ally used a bit of the money Scott had given her to buy some nicer clothes for her all-night date. They eat dinner at the fancy hotel restaurant, and they’re having a good time and a nice conversation. Scott owns a big publishing company, but now lives in Florida to run a sister-branch down there. He comes up to deal with board meetings and such that can’t take place via email. 

He then takes her on a carriage ride around Central Park. She asks about his use of an escort, and the nice way things have been going quickly sours. Seems he’s looking for the girlfriend experience, and one dip into Ally’s pool was enough to convince him that he’s half in love with her already. 

They go back to his hotel room, and despite him giving her an envelope of cash, he insists that he only wants to talk. She kind of encourages him that they should head towards the bed, but he asks if it’s mandatory with an escort. 

Ally is about to leave with a fraction of the offered money, but he proposes a game of strip truth or dare. Ally tries to only do dares, but he keeps saying “I dare you to tell me…” Ally is frustrated over the entire thing, and would honestly rather start taking her clothes off than actually be honest with this client. Whom she feels has crossed a line. 

Eventually, she does agree to meet up with him again tomorrow. But it’s totally not a date. Then they decide to take things to the bed. 

Chapter 6

“I thought you always flew home on Monday mornings.” 

“Normally I do, but I decided to extend my stay. I’ll fly home tomorrow.” 

“You postponed your flight because of the dare?”

This entire relationship is based around Ally screaming “GIRL, THIS IS YOUR RULE FOR A REASON. RUN.” Yet she won’t, simply because then we wouldn’t have a story. It’s maddening, honestly. 

“Great! What I want is for you to show me what a local does.”

She takes him on a make-up buying tour, and then visits her favorite nail salon. 

“No. My brother manages a car rental agency and he has very kindly let me borrow it for the day.” 

“You have a brother. Noted.”

“What’s with that noted shit? Are you creating a dossier on me or something?”

Even if you remove the escort thing, a guy making mental notes like this about a girl is a little creepy. 

“Orange?” I asked. 

“Yes, it’s so happy.” 

I poked my tongue out. “Orange is my least favorite color.”

It’s been a while since I’ve last shared this story, but…

When I was taking Japanese in high school, we’d do these exercises where we’d walk around and have “conversations” with our classmates to practise natural flow. However, we were dumb first years and barely knew any vocabulary. Sensei joked that our conversations were “junior high” conversations, and sounded a bit like this: “Do you like ice cream? I like ice cream.”

This is junior high writing right here. Where Ally and Scott are playing silly junior high games, having junior high conversation. It’s awkward and beyond tedious to read. 

“Actually, I thought you might join me,” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the bedroom.

Chapter 6 summary: Ally ended up falling asleep with Scott again. In the morning, over breakfast, he says that he didn’t extend his trip to be with her, because he does have a bit of legitimate business he can take care of while he’s here. 

Ally goes home, where she thinks of what “typical New Yorkers” do on a daily basis. She’s not a native, but even she knows that most of them don’t clog up tourist spots. Ally then calls up her brother and asks to borrow one of his rental cars. 

She picks Scott up, and says that typical residents get out of town on their free days. As they drive out of town, they play “2 truths and a lie”. It’s as I mentioned, a junior high conversation that’s painful to read for so many reasons. However, Ally gets kind of angry when he mentions that the only thing she seems to care about is sex. 

They eat lunch at a cafe, and then go to see the Yale campus. After they’re nearly trampled by students eager to get to their next class, Ally says that she was never that excited. They talk briefly about her 3 year stint at university, before she was forced to drop out for a yet unknown reason. 

Ally drives him back after that. He begs her to stay the night with her again, and even offers to pay. She tries to say that her brother needs the rental car back, and that it’s on the opposite side of town. Scott insists that he doesn’t mind waiting up for her. 

She returns the car, and then decides to go to Scott anyway, against her better judgement. 

[mskatesharma]

You are right and you should say it (re Anthony)

There is a really weird gatekeeping attitude in the fandom where you can’t criticise Anthony, or he can do no wrong.

I love Anthony; he’s a great character, and I do think he is better overall on the show, plus nothing he does is irredeemable and is understandable to some extent given his trauma, BUT HE SHOULD HAVE APOLOGISED. There should have been an apology to Edwina, yes she missed the warning signs, but he let her believe what she wanted to just to get his way and only confirmed he didn’t love her after she’d already ran away from the altar? How is that ok?

And I know some people say Kate is to blame for forcing Anthony to still marry Edwina, but he was the one who got them in that mess, he should never have proposed, and yes he admits that, but he never admits it to Kate, and he never explains himself about the proposal to Kate either.

This fandom has always been weird about criticising Anthony (and I haven’t exactly been shy about it in the past). Like, even talking about the fact that he's a dick in the book is apparently somewhat controversial. It's an historical romance novel, the hero being a prick isn't exactly unique is it? And in season one of the show? Jfc, people talk about how well Jonny understands Anthony, and if he of all people can accept that Anthony was a toxic ass in season one, I don't see why everyone else in the fandom struggles to understand that as well.

Knowing and exploring Anthony's trauma and grief gives a better understanding to his character, adds depth to his motivations and actions, but it does not excuse him when those actions are shitty and end up hurting people. It really isn't that difficult of a concept to grasp, and yet this fandom insists on being stupid.

An apology was the very least he owed to both Kate and Edwina, it's obvious no? I think we all know why Edwina should have one? He led her on. Yes he told her he couldn't give her passion, and he talked about duty, and she acknowledged that, but he also never corrected her whenever she talked about love in front of him, like at the lake in episode five, or when the Queen called them a true love match. He never spoke to Edwina privately and spelled out that he wouldn't love her; that it never was or would be about love for him. It’s like you said, how is it okay that he only makes her understand his intentions AFTER she’s ran from the alter because she finally sees how he looks at her sister? And he knows that she feels something for him, it should be obvious. This is an experienced man, and he sets out to charm Edwina; Edwina who is naive, young and innocent, and clearly has a crush on him, and he courts her HARD. Obviously, it's only ever a front that he presents her with, but that's still what she falls for. Tbh, I get so irritated with his reaction/hurt at Edwina's dirty looks towards him in episode seven, because how is he surprised that she had feelings for him? That she's angry at him? It makes him look so stupid.

(I’ve talked about Kate here.)

Also, do you ever think about the fact that Anthony was the person with the most agency in this whole situation, and yet still, most of the blame is placed on either Kate and/or Edwina. Okay, yes Edwina kept going on about how Anthony was the only one that she wanted, and the only real point of action available to Kate was to tell Edwina how she felt about Anthony, and the fact that they were mouth breathing real close to each other, but Anthony had so many options and choices available to him, and still he kept them on this path? Anthony is the man in this situation, he’s the one with rank, a title and money in this situation, he literally holds all? at least most of the power in this whole mess, and yet he still gets off so lightly.

He was the one who could have called off the engagement. He was the one who could have not proposed to Edwina. He was the one who could have not pursued Edwina in the first place, or stopped once he realised he was getting no where or that he couldn’t give her what she wanted or deserved. He was the one who could have made clear on multiple occasions that he would never love Edwina, and he did not plan to, to the woman in question. Yes Kate asked him to continue with the engagement after the dinner with the Sheffields, but that he actually went through with it? That’s still on him. He knew that whatever he felt for Kate would not just pass, that it wasn’t mere passion, and yet still he continues down that road despite knowing it’s unfair on Edwina. Kate could only ASK him to continue; he was the one with the power to actually follow through or not.

And you’re absolutely right, he never explains to Kate why he proposed to Edwina. And in all her pontificating in episode six, or even seven, Edwina never asks him or wonders why he proposed, or continued with the engagement in the first place. The two people who deserved explanations and apologies...and he doesn’t tell them shit. The only people he expresses any sort of regret or apology to are Violet and Mary...and I don't mean to be rude, but they're not the ones that really matter here are they?

[dinosaurtsukki]

dating the armed detective agency’s medic

a/n: of course i have to write one for the ADA even though i’m a biased port mafia bitch. there’s a bit more characters here so i’ll try to keep each one short but still very fluffy and sweet <3

this man is always getting himself injured and even though agency has yosano, fukuzawa thought it would be a good idea to hire another medic who could deal with less life-threatening injuries

ofc dazai flirts with you the first chance he gets and every time he comes into your clinic

dazai: good morning my dear belladonna! the weather is beautiful today, but not as beautiful as you of course

you: YOUR ARM IS BROKEN PLEASE SIT DOWN

although as much as he likes to slightly mess with you, dazai genuinely enjoys coming to the clinic and being treated by someone like you

he likes observing your hands and how careful they are when they bandage his arm or that cute little scrunch of your brows when you’re bandaging his forehead

while on a mission, atsushi and kunikida go the extra length to protect dazai because they know you’re worried about him 

and then one day dazai comes into your clinic again and instantly you think that something has happened

until he surprises you by bringing out a bouquet of flowers

‘if i get injured less on missions, would you let me take you out on a date?’

jokes on you though after you guys date dazai finds every excuse to visit you in the clinic

he’ll get papercuts on purpose just so he can get you to put a bandage on them 

kunikida is annoyed because dazai they’re just papercuts jfc also please go back to work

seeing that you’re always concerned about his health and well-being, dazai finds himself making much less attempts cause he knows the stress it puts on you when you have to bandage him up after and make sure he’s alright

thanks to you our man is able to take care of himself a bit more

even though he is your boyfriend he’s still going to mess with you in any way he can

he’ll barge into your office claiming that his chest hurts because you didn’t give him a kiss that morning

also will highkey hug you from behind even if you’re treating another patient

the first time he meets you is for a physical exam check-up because it was required at the agency and he feels embarrassed at first seeing that the agency’s medic was gorgeous

atsushi was fresh out of the orphanage so of course he was quite malnourished and still had some injuries from his abuse

you had no idea who’d dare hurt such a sweet boy so you do your best to treat him and instructed atsushi to come in for some follow-up check-ups

although when he comes in for that check-up he talks about how he’s been healthy because he eats a lot of chazuke and you’re like ‘oh no, no, no, please eat other things too’

you end up packing him a bento box because he’s your patient so ofc you have to keep him healthy 

the two of you run into each other a lot in the morning because atsushi tends to come in way earlier than he’s supposed to so you often find him sitting in front of the locked door

thus begins your early morning chats. atsushi’s always polite and never interrupts when you talk and you love how he shows so much interest in whatever you say

atsushi began to realize that he has feelings for you but boy is he bad at concealing them also ranpo kind of busted him in front of everyone in the agency including you

but atsushi was saved by you hinting that you wouldn’t mind going on a date with him at all and he’s ecstatic until he realizes he hasn’t been on a date before

he takes you out to a nice restaurant and insists on paying for everything

nothing much changes with your routine but atsushi likes to bring you breakfast in the morning and the two of you have little dates before going into the office

he knows how worried you get when he goes out on especially dangerous missions but he does everything he can to protect the city and the new home he found with the agency and you

this guy was one of the people, other than yosano and fukuzawa, who interviewed you for the job and you can’t forget how intense he was when it came to asking questions

of course, you answered all of them well but kunikida was very serious that you knew how dangerous it could be to be involved with the agency

there was a self-defense portion in the interview that you knew about and of course kunikida was the one who added that

to his pleasant surprise, you managed to dodge all his incoming attacks (kunikida lowkey found it hot, like that’s requirement number ten on his list checked right there)

kunikida does get injured a fair amount during missions and he doesn’t want to get dissected by yosano all the time so he goes to your clinic that’s right near the office

he likes how efficiently you work and how gentle your hands are that even when you’re stitching up his wound he almost can’t feel a thing

however, kunikida does have a bad habit of not resting for the appropriate number of days. like, even with a bullet wound he’ll still hobble over to his desk to finish his paperwork

once, he came down with a terrible case of the flu so of course you sent him home only for kunikida to sneak back into the office when he thought no one was looking

you ended up taking kunikida home but poor guy could barely do anything by himself so you took care of him too

kunikida is definitely the delirious babbling when he’s sick so he ends up talking about his list of traits for an ideal woman and how you filled out a good portion of it

when he wakes up (much more sane) he sees you reading that list on his notebook and he’s like WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING

he handed you the notebook personally before passing out and kunikida can’t live it down

you: well, even if i don’t match all these requirements, would you still be interested in going out?

kunikida: yes... please

everyone can tell that kunikida’s about to go on a date because of how nervous he is the entire day

he knows how tight your schedule can be and how busy he is with with work but he always makes time to have his lunchbreak with you

loves to hear about your day and even has some space in his notebook dedicated to any interesting stories you have

the first time you met him was when he also had his physical check-up which ranpo insisted he didn’t need but fukuzawa made him so he had no choice but to follow

the entire time ranpo’s just like ‘nothing’s wrong with me, see?’ and then you do a simple dental check-up and find that he has like two cavities he didn’t want to tell anyone about it because he’s scared of the dentist *cue ranpo trying to run away and you grabbing him by the poncho*

of course fukuzawa makes him go to the dentist too but ranpo insists that you have to be the one to take him and schedule the appointment and come along

truth be told, you’ve always been pretty attracted to ranpo because you know of his skill as a detective so you were excited to have this day with him

only for you to have to physically restrain ranpo to the dentist’s chair (you even had to call kenji to help) while his teeth was getting checked

ranpo was squeezing your hand the entire time and he was fairly grumpy after the whole ordeal that he wouldn’t even talk to you until he asked if you could get ice cream

you: the dentist just told you to eat less sweets

ranpo: but i neeeeed them

you: fine, how about frozen yogurt?

after the dentist trip, you know how much of a hard time ranpo has with eating less sweets so you decide to leave fruit on his desk as a healthier alternative but he won’t TOUCH IT

after some bribery on fukuzawa’s part (’i’ll acknowledge you if you eat fruit more and also tell atsushi to give you a piggyback ride every day’) he finally concedes

he actually finds himself liking fruit so in the afternoon he’ll swing by the office just in time for you to be slicing fruit

ranpo gets over the fact that you sent him to the dentist and enjoys his time in the clinic eating fruit with you and sleeping on the cots inside

your clinic is where he hides when he doesn’t want to do work and when he pouts and asks you to say that he’s sick you can’t help but go along with it

he’s also super physically affectionate around you. will literally have his body draped over yours sometimes while you work

people start talking about how you two look good there and one time someone asked if the two of you are dating and ranpo’s like ‘of course we are!’

and you’re surprised self is about to protest when ranpo smirks at you and says ‘why? am i wrong?’

lmao ofc he’s not you’ve been struggling to keep yourself from being a flustered mess around him

he’s still clingy around you but this time he comes into the clinic every few minutes to ask for a kiss

▸ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ◂

taglist (check out my post for details on being part of my taglist): @waitforitillwritemywayout @atsumu-brainrot​ @laure-chan @goodfoodxoxoxo ​ @guardianangelswings @ah-kaashi @amberalisa​

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. I do not get why the colors are so oversaturated. persephone is so hard to even look at because she's just one shade of neon pink, and it really doesnt help rachel seems to think dull backgrounds help? that only makes the contrast even more intense and makes it even harder to look at. there used to be such a strong grasp of color harmony but that's been gone for so long now that I doubt it'll ever come back. Even her non-comic art now is the overly bright, wonky style. What a downgrade.

2. I don't get why we're supposed to be against Minthe when she once slapped Hades (which came out of nowhere and is OOC) yet we're supposed to laugh at Hekate slapping him during a moment which seems to imply it's a common occurrence between the two. Surely his "best friend" wouldn't physically assault him in the same way that sours his relationship to another person for good right? RS flip flops a lot on what's ok for some but bad for others, but the anti Minthe angle for everything is ridiculous

3. I dount RS even knows she's doing this but the fact her Persephone is idolized for her youth/beauty/fertility and nothing else (especially compared to older women like Demeter, Leto, Minthe, etc who "lost it" when they got older or ever had those "desired" traits to begin with) has deeply misogynistic implications to it. RS can claim all she wants it's a pro feminist story, but even a basic look into it makes it seem like it's a very regressive, conservative piece masquerading as "progressive"

4. I feel like no one really talk about how the actual SA in comic was depicted really voyeuristically? Like there's so many panels of her being groped and emphasizing her body, still always making a point to show how "sexy" she while she's literally being assaulted. It doesn't help afterwards the comic again and again makes a point of sexualizing her (esp from Hades' POV) w/o her consent. RS says she wants to give her "agency", but she sure seems determined to make sure Persephone never has it.

From OP: I can’t really see the SA scene as sexualized. I think I get what you’re referring to but I think it’s just meant to show what Apollo was doing which makes it more disturbing to read. I do agree with the rest though.

5. It's so stupid how fast RS reverses any stakes in comic, making any sort of tension just non existent. just off the characters who were shown to dislike hades/be disapproving of him wanting to get with persephone (hera, eros, hekate, etc) they just get over it in about an hour, maybe a day at most to now blindly support it ad want them together. like seriously? RS is trying to sell us theyre a couple going against all the odds when only like, two people don't approve. what are they overcoming?

6. any LO theory we see now is just people debating on how, when, and how many babies persephone will give hades and that's about it. does she really have nothing else going for her beyond what she can give to a man who is doing nothing to accommodate or compromise for her? Does her sexual trauma not matter when Hades needs babies? Oh, and PS to any LO fas reading this, Hades and Persephone didn't have kids in the myths, especially not Dionysus. JFC.

7. Something that gets overlooked i feel is that despite Hera being the worst to Minthe, Minthe still told her friend not to mess with Hera when Thetis was sending dick pics to Hera. TO ADD SALT TO THAT HERA WAS KISSING HADES right after their fight and probably sometime when Minthe and hades were together.

I’m not saying Minthe is a done nothing wrong character but she is a far more likeable character than the cast members were supposed to be rooting for

8. what I dont get is you get lo fans saying it has to be uncritically praised because "we need a woman's voice to be heard!" like ... ok, lets hear what actual greek women have to say on the mythology and raise them up, not some random new zealander who is butchering a real country's culture and stories to tell her weird 50 shades/sleeping beauty rip off. idk how to tell them making a privileged white lady even richer with her capitalist bootlicking, status quo praising work isnt subversive lmao

9. What I find frustrating is LO fans say the art decline is just "style progression" and the culture of webcomics is more about speed but 1) stop marketing it off its "great art" then of it doesnt match up but 2) that undersells how many other webtoon creators, often just by themselves, create beautiful episodes every week while rachel has a 4-5 art team and its only gotten worse in quality. Objectively she has become a worse artist. especially when you see her older art. It's harsh but true.

10. I think some people act as if it's impossible to put "contradictory" colors next to each but that's not the case, it just requires a little more work. Case in point, the idea of Persephone with red eyes isn't inherently bad, the problem is it's very obvious Rachel just picks colors at random instead of googling color palettes (and yes, pink and red can work!), hence why it looks bad. It's actually possible to pair basically every color together, but Rachel just doesn't put the effort into it.

[arsenicpanda]

1. do your work!!!! but also 2. pls rank the serpents for me from fav to least fav.

lol, I’m gonna assume that means bughead

001| bughead

when I started shipping it if I did:  I literally have no idea.  I wish I could tell you, but all I know is that when my friend and I got to the 1x06 kiss I was like “YESSSSSS”

my thoughts:  Man, what can I say that I haven’t said before?  I think they’re two of the most compatible characters I’ve ever seen in anything, in interests, in priorities, in attitudes, in world views, in sexual preferences, in intellect, in just anything and everything.  Like, all my favorite ships are soulmates in my mind, by jfc, these two are SOULMATES.  It’s hard to imagine a world where they don’t end up together in some fashion or at least with a very deep bond (or a lot of hurt from a severed bond).  I also really love that Betty is mostly rational and will doubt Jughead’s nonsense; that is, until he or something else manages to convince her it’s not nonsense and she gets on board with it, at which point watch the fuck out, choo choo, all above the crazy conspiracy train, motherfuckers.  Meanwhile, Betty has her own outlandish ideas, which Jughead also sometimes doubts (although not as frequently), but he always supports them anyway because he trusts her judgment, although I’m sure he’d step in if things went too far.  I feel like there’s a danger with them, though, that they could let their biases and blind spots get the better of them and turn onto a dangerous, cruel track that they would be convinced was the Right and Just one, and I think that they could absolutely confirm each other’s stances and they would trust each other’s opinions over the more rational ones of anyone else.  There’s a real possibility for Betty and Jughead to become the villains of the story, not that the show will ever explore that, and I find that very, very interesting.  Also, they would be the world’s most protective parents, jfc, imagine if their kid got bullied, they would ensure that other kid was destroyed

What makes me happy about them: They’re just fucking adorable together and sexy together and crazy compatible and crazy in love.  Watching them make heart eyes at each other, watching them bone, and watching them investigate together bring me great joy

What makes me sad about them: The cheating and the breakup and the b/a and the SEVEN YEARS APART and also all the trauma and the alcoholism ;_;

things done in fanfic that annoys me: When Serpent Jughead is a douchey Bad Boy instead of this guy who is overly intense and extremely committed to his community and constantly ready to FIGHT for it; Serpent Jughead is the world’s most annoying Jughead because he is not only ready to argue with anyone and everyone, he is about to argue with anyone and everyone, someone please stop him, and I don’t know why you’d trade something as ridiculous and fun as “Local Gang Leader Petitions City Hall, Hates Drugs, and Ensure the Safety of His Community (Possibly With Punching)” for “Generic Bad Boy #23435″.  Also irritating: Betty being a complete sweetheart with no edge instead of someone with a good heart who will absolutely cut you if she thinks it’s necessary and right.  Oh, and when Jughead just doesn’t have an interest in writing (or an equivalent creative pursuit).  As a side not, when their parents are made a lot better or a lot worse than they actually are in canon; like, you can’t ignore that they’re terrible, but there’s really no need to make them any worse than they are because they already really suck.  Oh, and alcoholic Jughead is a dealbreaker, I guess excepting canon compliant fic now gdi

things I look for in fanfic: P I N I N G, especially from Betty’s end.  For canon compliant fic, I love a dash of “Jughead has been crazy about her for YEARS”, especially if we get a glimpse at smitten, bby!Jughead.  I also love a well-done Serpent Jughead, and friendships with Jughead and the other Serpents are always a big plus for me, as is any friendship between Betty and Veronica and Kevin.  If the fic is comedic and has a strong supporting cast, I am especially down for it; Betty and Jughead are both so fucking ridiculous, and I think there’s a lot of comedic potential in them in general and also in putting them in regular situations because I do not think they would respond like regular people.  Also a bonus: Jughead being The Most and Betty being Intense and both of them being insufferable.  Oh and tropes upon tropes upon tropes, with a special shout out to there was only one bed

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I’m down for jopaz and jabitha for Jughead, beronica for Betty long term and some hatesex bonna short term

My happily ever after for them: at this point, leaving Riverdale forever and opening a Private Investigation agency in a city, with Jughead writing novels based on their adventures, maybe with a side of kids in the future

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Canonically Jughead is the big spoon and Betty is the little spoon

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Investigations, 100%

003 | teen Serpents + Joaquin

1. Jughead: Look.  I love him.  He’s a disaster.  He loves his community.  He loves Betty.  In general, he loves deeply but also really guards his heart.  He does crazy shit with the best crazy eyes.  He’s The Best.

2. Toni: She is such a delight.  She just does not take people’s shit--with the exception of Cheryl, for better or for worse--and that’s so fun to watch.  She also cares a lot about her community, which I find very fun.  Also she, like all the other Serpents except Fangs, can be mean and I think that’s great.

3. Sweet Pea: Just.  The surliest boy.  So grumpy, but his smile is so cute.  Always ready to fight anyone and everyone, but also really cares about his friends and the Serpents.  Looks cool, absolutely is a loser.

4. Fangs: A sweetheart with a nebulous personality.  Really fun to watch with Sweet Pea and Jughead and Kevin, but I barely understand who he is.  An enigma.  I love him anyway.

5. Joaquin: I am sorry, Joaquin, but I know nothing about you except that you really like Kevin, so you are my least favorite, but know that I still think you’re neat!

[ahiddenpath]

Digimon Adventure 2020 Ep 20 Reaction

HOLY CRAP MY DUDES, people gonna be RILED about this one!  

So, like, don’t spoil yourself!  Watch the ep first, then come back!  Spoilers below the cut!

I’m exhausted, this ep didn’t let up!  Ooooof.

So first, it me, so you know I’mma talk abou Sora and Koushiro vibin’ in the park.  We saw that Sora does still have a seemingly traditional, strict mom.  And when asked if his parents scolded him for vanishing for three days (NONE OF THESE PARENTS CALLED THE COPS?!), Koushiro looked aside and said, “Well...  My house is...”

AND THEN HE STOPPED, HOW DARE YOU, I AM BESIDE MYSELF.

So, like, are his parents never home?  Did he maybe never get adopted?!  That doesn’t make sense, though- he said he lives in Taichi’s apartment complex...  Maybe he’s in foster care, and his family doesn’t keep tabs on him???  Or maybe his relationship with his parents is already so strained and distant that they didn’t find it odd that he didn’t talk to them for three days?  Let’s be real, the parents don’t seem to mind kids vanishing for three days that much, so that could be it, according to this show’s logic...  

(“Where are the parents”/ “Kids getting away with weird stuff” is a highly common children’s entertainment occurrence.  Real kids don’t have the agency/ability to up and vanish for adventures for days at a time (one hopes), and kid’s media gives children viewers characters their age with agency, because that’s what kiddos want to see.  So, like, while we’re hard on parents in children’s entertainment for objectively being terrible parents, as far as concern for the welfare of their kids...  It’s kind of a product of the genre.  Still, one wishes it was handled more like 02, with the kids covering for each other when Digital World stuff demanded their attention).

Koushiro might not even have the adoption backstory in the reboot, but I assume he will to some degree, just based on other backgrounds being...  More or less similar, so far, at least from what we’ve seen/hinted at (Sora’s traditional mother in this ep, Jyou mentioning the academic pressure in his family, Mimi being spoiled, etc).

AND SORA WAS EXTRA SPECIAL CUTE IN THIS EP, THAT ONE FRAME OF HER, UGHHHHH they gave her the warmest expressions, and I am so here for it.

So I’m wondering if Koushiro and the others will now handle international Network issues that Koushiro mentioned while Taichi and Yamato handle Digital World events?  I do kind of like the kids divvying up tasks and functioning as a team in a different way, but...  This is already the Taichi and Yamato show, can we...  Not shove the other kids to a different task?  We’ll see what happens.

Now, meanwhile, Yams has to rescue his bro!  Velgrmon stole Takeru away right after Yamato found him.  

(Hræsvelgr is a jötunn in Norse mythology.  He’s like...  Sort of like an eagle?  And he makes the wind.  Basically, some more Norse nods for ya).

Velgrmon was pretty dope!  And scary!  And I’m not super clear on how the kids followed him into the sky- can Metalgreymon... fly???  But, uh, they did!  And Yamato ran across Metalgremon’s chain like an absolute madlad, jfc!

It was so sweet how Weregarurumon protected Yamato while he tried to reach Takeru, ahhhhh!  The ep used a lot of hand/reaching out imagery, which is always an easy way to elicit an emotional reaction.

Ultimately, they get Takeru out, and then recall that, “Oh, right, we cannot fly,” and they plummet to the ground, but they’re fine, because the kids are indestructible in the reboot-  EXCEPT FOR MAXIMUM EMOTIONAL DAMAGE.

Poor Takeru freaks out when he sees Onii-chan about to get wrecked, and here’s where I don’t understand Devimon’s logic-  He brought a Chosen to the Digital World, knowing he held his partner captive...  And there’s no better way to make a partner digimon rally than seeing their kiddo in danger.  

Angemon busts free and appears to save the day as Takeru is finally allowed a second phrase (we’re up to Onii-chan and STOP!).  It’s evocative of Angemon’s first appearance in Adventure, right down to everyone gasping at the point of light, the dropping feathers, and Angemon dissolving again, because THIS SMALL BABY CHILD HASN’T HAD A BAD ENOUGH DAY ALREADY, JFC REBOOT.

But Angemon had some... damage?  Corrupted data?  On his arm.  And just when you think Takeru will pick up his digitama and start over with a digimon who is now his partner, starting a new life with him...  

SIKE!  SOME JERK SWIPED THE DIGITAMA!!!  AND THEN DEVIMON IS ALL LIKE, “HAHAHA!  NOW YOU WILL BE REBORN IN MY POWER!”  SO I GUESS HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING?!?!?!

HOW!  DARE!  YOU!

I can’t, this is too much!  How dare you, he’s an actual baby!  Ugh.

AND THEN KOUSHIRO TALKED ABOUT KABUTERIMON, “He teaches me jokes, but I don’t understand half of it,” ughhhhhhh, ugghhhhh, I love you both.

So basically, after a string of eps with not much more than kind of... repetitive battles and one big reveal, this ep didn’t let up for a second.  Poor Takeru!  Lord!  

I hope they stop doing him dirty, LET’S GO SAVE OUR BAT HAMSTER!

[glittercracker]

Kingkiller Crap

So, I’ve never really posted much here that involves my own thoughts. There are a number of reasons why, but whatever. I feel the need NOW to post some thoughts, and having no working independent blog (yet!) I suppose this is the place to dump them. PSA: none of this is about anime. None of this is frivolous or fun. TW for sexual abuse. You have been warned! So. I’ve been rereading the Kingkiller Chronicles. aka “Name of the Wind” and “The Wise Man’s Fear” and “That Other One That Shall Not Be Named.” This reread was, at the beginning, almost an afterthought. A way to keep my 13 yo happy on a 7 hour car ride. Except, he could not have cared less, and I got sucked back into the story (and okay, if that is how all our audiobook car rides go, meh? At least it keeps me sharp!) I raced through book one, and bought book 2 on audible with an eye to my upcoming surgery and recooperation. Book one was problematic in the places I remembered, but also as generally engaging as I remembered. And then book 2 happened, and surgery happened, and I have had weeks to lie in bed listening to this bloody interminable sequel, and I find myself lost in a morass of, “WTF was I ever THINKING?” Namely, how did I ever love this book enough to pine for the next? It’s been hard to put a finger on exactly what is making this time through book 2 both a slog and also vaguely, creepily uncomfortable, but if you’re interested, my rather stream-of-consciousness ramble of thoughts ensues. First, the male gaze that rears its head at times in book 1 predominates here. But while I don’t love the way Kvothe describes women, I also have 2 degrees in literature, and I’m beyond that being a reason not to read an otherwise engaging book. Second, Kvothe is a Gary Stu, for all of Rothfuss’s protestations to the contrary. Again, so far, so much traditional high fantasy. But while, say, Aragorn is content to just quietly be Awesome At Everything, Kvothe is a braggy little shit of a Gary Stu: the person you hated for announcing their perfect scores in that hs class you could never quite master. I could fill several pages with examples, but for some reason what really made me want to kick him in the head was not Felurian’s disbelief of his virginity (though really, jfc, REALLY?) Nope, it was the end of his time w the Ademrae (sp may be off, remember, I’m listening not reading!) when he crows about having learned the history of his sword 2 days earlier than expected. Why does this stick out? Oh, idk. Maybe bc he sucks so hard he can’t even get past the first obstacle in his practical final exam? Yet he still has to tell us how fucking awesome he is for remembering 6000 names of previous owners.

I know, I’m supposed to forgive his teenage idiocy. The internet sympathists (no pun intended!) keep telling me this. And I suppose that I would, IF this were a simple first-person narrative - but it isn’t. Let’s repeat that, and really think about it. This story is being narrated by an older and presumably wiser Kvothe who has lost everything - whose abilities have been expunged to the extent that he can’t open his own chest of Cool Stuff. He shows humility in his actions, mostly. And yet when discussing his 16 yo self, the humility evaporates, and he speaks with no kind of perspective or lens of accrued wisdom. He still compares women to instruments waiting for the “right” player (i.e. him) and defends this choice of words by saying, essentially, “You aren’t a musician, you don’t know!”

Interesting assumption for an innkeeper in a medieval-esque world. Interesting assumption if this is in fact authorial interjection, too, because I suspect the majority of this book’s audience *are* musicians to at least an extent, and I also suspect that the majority of us (yes, us - I own several beloved instruments, including a harp custom made for me as a wedding present from my husband) would not equate a human lover to even the most beloved of instruments.

But all of this is well-trodden critical ground. As far as I can tell, though, my third issue isn’t: although it’s perhaps the most glaringly tone-deaf example of all of Rothfuss’s excruciatingly tone-deaf portrayal of his world’s women. Namely, the two girls kidnapped and gang-raped by the fake Ruh.

Almost all of the criticism I’ve read on this section of TWMF concentrates on Kvothe’s treatment of the girls’ abusers. What’s interesting is that no one ever seems to write about Kvothe’s treatment of the girls themselves. Yes, he treats them kindly. He tends their wounds, he feeds them, he tries (and succeeds, of course) to draw Ellie out of her shocked stupor. 

Yet what he never once does, from the moment he takes control of the situation, is ask their opinions on any of this, including what their next step should be. He just decides to bring them back to their families - families who, in this type of society, might well disown them for being “ruined”. And the girls themselves, namely the intelligent and savvy Krin, seem to go blindly along with what he says. Why? Would Krin at least not question this, or object to his making decisions for her, when a group of men had so recently and brutally taken away all of her agency? Would she not question whether being brought back to her family is the best thing for the catatonic Ellie?

Okay, apparently not. So they return to their apparently very forgiving town. Kvothe stands up for the girls against the village shithead: thank you, Kvothe, bc I’m sure Krin could not have said those words herself. He assures the reader that they are with people who will love and care for them despite what has happened to them: thank you, Kvothe, though it’s stretching my credulity a bit that you would assume that no one will take issue with their deflowering. But then he “gifts” the girls the spoils of his slaughter: the horses, the valuables, the wagons. And I was about to give him a (grudging) pass for being decent about this, EXCEPT: he goes on to say that these goods are meant for the girls’ dowries. Specifically, to make them worth enough financially for potential husbands to overlook their loss of virginity. He even tells Krin not to settle for a less-than-lucrative marriage.

And suddenly, I was outraged. Why? Because a man who had witnessed the full extend of these women’s abuse brought them back to a backwater town believing that he was being magnanimous both in doing so, and in giving up whatever share he might have taken of the spoils of the debacle to make them financially lucrative marriage prospects. Because he never asked these traumatized girls if they might rather cut and run with the money than use it to make some man overlook their abuse in order to make them his property. He never even questions the idea that they will be grateful to submit to marriage contracts that will no doubt require them to have sex with their husbands, even though these women have been abused to the extent that they cannot sit a horse for *two days* after being rescued. And the worst part is that 20-something frame-story Kvothe doesn’t question this either; he just goes on to gloat about people singing songs about his daring rescue. Maybe I was just ready for a straw to break my benefit of the doubt. Or maybe this really is as outrageous as it feels. Either way, I can’t help being angry at Rothfuss. As a writer, I am very well aware that character and author are not the same thing; that authorial intent is not the same as authorial beliefs. But there are moments in some books when I have to wonder if that line is blurring, and this is one of them. Kvothe has literally JUST left a female-dominated country full of independent women happily doing their own thing. He has given these girls the means to find themselves a situation that will never require them to be beholden to a man again - even houses ffs, in the shape of those 2 wagons, should they want them. There are so many options beyond marriage: I can’t, for instance, think of a medieval society that didn’t have its version of a convent. Or, for Krin at least, why not the University? For that matter, why not marry her himself, and then set her free to do as she likes under the awning of a respectable marriage? 

Instead he returns them to their fathers, and likewise gives their fathers the means to marry them off with no argument. Who, after all, holds the reins of the horses at the end? Why does Kvothe assume that these families will actually use the wealth even in the dubious way that he recommends?

And in this, I think, I am justified in giving Rothfuss the stink-eye. This is one more instance for Kvothe to play the hero with no real attention given to the consequences. Kvothe himself, I think, would be appalled. He has suffered so much deprivation in his life, so often been marginalized, scapegoated, powerless, how on earth could he so easily consign others to that fate? How could he think, loving Denna as he does, having heard her words to the beaten girl in Severin, that buying these girls husbands who will “overlook” their abuse for the sake of wealth is anything but a wretched life sentence for them?

Sigh. There was a time when I desperate awaited book three. Now, given the other women’s lives at stake in this series, I’m not so sure I want to know.

[vagrantblvrd]

I’m sure it’s been done a bajillion times by now?

But that hitmens AU in which Gavin and Ryan work for different agencies, and of course their paths cross all the time.

That time in Paris where Ryan had to walk the catwalk as a model to get close to his target. (Unorthodox, but it worked, okay.)

Gavin was there too, either posing as a bartender or photographer and you just know there was a moment in which their eyes met, because of course they did.

Gavin serving drinks and being flashy about it, and Ryan needing to blend in at the bar while his target mingles with the crowd. Gavin zeroing in on Ryan because something strange about him, you know? (Not soft like the social elite and whatnot around them, pings Gavin’s potential threat radar hard and just. Best to keep an eye on him? And if flirting is needed to keep up the charade, so be it.)

Or Ryan on the catwalk and there’s that one photographer that wasn’t there when he first walked onto the catwalk, but when he does his turn to head backstage there he is tucked a little deeper into the shadows then the other photographers.

Odd, but he doesn’t think much of it until he’s backstage and the screaming starts? And now he has to hustle if he wants to get his target. Which he does, but it’s a close thing, because Drama. And when he brings it up with the agency all security footage the photographer should have been in is either corrupted or simply missing. HMMM.

Other cities and other targets - awfully convenient how they’re never after the same targets, so no unnecessary conflict of interest there, thank goodness.

Eventually they get to the point where it’s a game for them, all friendly rivalry stuff, you know? Who an get to their target first and go unnoticed.

Or who can manage to find the most unlikely of disguises and such.

(Those times they deliberately pick a disguise to help the other one out, and little *wink* as they let them into select VIPs only areas or pass them a key card or vital bit of whatever to reach their target and their handlers/agencies are just like *facepalm* in the background once they run into each other on a mission because cue the awkward flirting/Pining? Like seriously idiots, just bone already, no one wants to see you drag this out any longer it’s too painful to watch.)

And then!

The mission where they do have the same target, because some baddie out there has some Evil Scheme(TM) to expose/ruin their agencies and then Take Over The World(TM) and they’re the only ones who can stop said baddie?

And then two ridiculously skilled hitmens team up to stop the baddie and it’s just. Utter ridiculousness and terrible flirting and probably jumping into a large body of water to escape dying horribly and someone offering the other their jacket to keep warm while they trudge their way towards civilization and a car they can steal.

(Bonus points if they both went into the water and the whole keeping warm thing is a moot point, but it’s totally the gesture that counts and just. Yes.)

Also high speed chases and shooty-shoots with the baddie’s flunkies.

Some cheap motel somewhere with one bed - there’s a convention or something in town and it was the last available room. Instead of one of them taking the bed and the other sleeping on the floor they settle for sharing the bed - after a bit of back and forth, of course, because gentlemen or whatever. Then the bit where they’re hyper aware of the person in the bed next to them and all that.

Ryan puts off heat like a mofo and Gavin runs cold and it’s after the dunk in the water so body warmth! Which is how they wake up the next day with Gavin snuggled into Ryan and Ryan’s arms - naturally - around him and oh, no, because it’s actually really fucking nice. This whole bit about how lonely their lives are what with the constant traveling and murderizing other people thing?

And, like. Sure they’ve got friends at the agency and such, but they both go home to empty apartments. (Well. Gavin’s got his cats and Ryan’s got his strays and just. Yes.)

Akwardness all over the place, but first maybe there’s that moment where fuzzy from sleep and safe and warm and a kiss happens. Clumsy kind of thing because mostly asleep but the most natural thing in the world and it’s super nice until it registers in the kiss-er’s mind that the kiss-ee is stiff and awkward and oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit, they don fucked up.

Super awkward apologies and all then back to business and no more said about the sleepy morning kiss because they have a baddie to stop!!1!

Some big, stupidly dramatic final battle/whatever with the baddie in which close calls and flesh wounds happen.

Gavin helping Ryan to his feet and this weirdly wistful touch to his smile as he does because this is pretty much it for their team-up, isn’t it? Going to go back to their agencies after this and hope they don’t run up against one another going for the same target again because it might not go so well (relatively?) the next time.

And their handlers/agency are like jfc, because these two idiots?

But also, you know, the two of them worked extremely well together and realize if the agencies actually worked together, pooled their resources and the whatnot they’d be even more effective?

Something about working towards the same goals and it’d be smarter, more efficient if the agencies merged, wouldn’t it? Less chance of botching one another’s missions/agendas and other nonsense.

AND THEN.

Gavin and Ryan showing up to a briefing and being :O at seeing one another because as far as they knew their agencies had relocated their HQ to a new building - were on leave or vacation or whatever when the move happened - and that’s when their handlers/bosses let them in on the whole merged agencies thing and that they’ll be working together from now on.

And also, please to take a look at the fraternization rules because they’d hate for Gavin and Ryan using them as an excuse not to to do something about all the Pining they’ve been doing for years at that point.

Seriously, it’s just fucking sad.

And then, you know, smooches are had, because of course they are.

Also, also, the hitmens AU where Ryan is actually a model using that as cover for his hitmens shenanigans. Gavin poses as a photographer and Ryan knows it’s BS because he knows all the photographers from whatever publication Gavin claims to be from. And then the whole paths crossing and eventual smooching happens, because yes.)

[meimi-haneoka]

About chapter 44 of Clear Card (the last one for a while)

Gif of the month:

After my post with the differences between the Japanese and English versions of Chapter 44, here I come with my usual commentary! Just sorry for the big delay...This one is gonna be the last one for a while, at least until beginning of August....wondering why? Because as I exposed in my previous post, my interpretation was confirmed: on the next issue of Nakayoshi they’re going to publish a short story (without a full chapter), and Chapter 45 will only be published in the September issue of Nakayoshi, out on beginning of August! So the digital release on the Clamp-fans website is set for August 1st.

I know. It’s gonna be a lot to wait out, after such a....peculiar chapter.

And under the cut I’ll tell you about it!

A shady Yukito

This is the first time ever that we see Yukito being this serious, this shady, this “opaque”. We’ve always seen him like a naive and happy-go-lucky character, but his personality had a slight development already in the Sakura Card Arc, with his realization of what he really is and what matters in his life right now.  Now we see him acting on those feelings, feelings that made him grow an increasing need to do something for the people he loves. We have seen him wondering what he COULD DO, concretely do to help those people....and now we know. Sakura noticed the very moment it happened: Yukito called forth a spell, which turned into night time a limited area around his neighbourhood. They’re all confused, Sakura of course, but Kero and Suppi most of all, so much that they immediately turn into their real forms and stand in a protective way in front of Sakura. I’d just like to pause for a moment in front of this scene, and take in the loyalty, devotion those two have for Sakura (and she isn’t even the master of one of them!). They knew there was something wrong with that moon in the sky, and they were ready to jump at Yukito’s throat if it turned out he was doing something malicious. Sakura is so important to them that they would probably trust no one when it comes to her safety. Back to the chapter, Yukito calmly says he’s available to explain everything to Sakura, and Nakuru helps them getting a little privacy, while explaining what’s going on to the two guardians, who have gone back to their plushie forms.

Yukito’s agency

And so (personally I was quite amazed by this) we find out that Yukito has been thinking about the possibility of doing something for the people he loves, the only people he has a strong connection to (since he’s got no parents as he’s not even a human being), ever since the end of Sakura Card Arc. He spoke to Kaho about the powers of the Tsukimine Shrine, and got info on how to obtain them. And all of this fits so naturally (because of course it makes sense that Yukito would go say goodbye to Eriol and Kaho on his own, why not, it’s totally plausible) into the old plot that I can’t help but silently clap my hands at CLAMP for including this in the creases of the old established canon without feeling like a stretch. As I said in my previous post, Kaho didn’t seem very keen on answering his question, but in the end she did. And now Yukito thought it was the right time to put to good use what he learned that day. When we saw him going to the Tsukimine Shrine with Nakuru some chapters ago, he went there to sign a contract with the Shrine itself. Now Yukito is invested with divine moon powers, straight from the divinity of the shrine, and he’ll be able to share the consciousness when he turns into Yue, as well as deciding when he’s turning into Yue.

Sakura’s face, throughout the story, seems to lose color. Yes, we can’t see her complexion, and yet the more Yukito tells, the more she grows worried. I’ll point it out now, but save for one small panel (and at a distance), Sakura won’t smile even once in this chapter. No, not even once. Even when, in theory, one would expect her to, because she gained a magical ally. And the reason is obvious: she’s not stupid. She knows, somehow, that when you make a contract, even of a magical nature, you’re going to give something in return. And this is exactly what makes her so unsettled. The fact that Yukito won’t say what he gave in return makes it all the worse. (Jfc I’m so, so worried about this). Another thing that I certainly have to talk about is the depiction of how close Sakura and Yukito are, in this chapter. There’s lots of physical contact, but not in a romantic way of course, there’s a lot of emotional tension going on, Sakura cares deeply for Yukito and Yukito’s behavior is halfway between a devoted brother and a knight who swore his life to protect the people he cares about. I have to be honest, the first 5 seconds of seeing them holding hands like that almost made me jealous, but then I understood why: the intensity of their relationship could almost be mistaken for something more, some kind of romantic vibe. But I realized immediately that nothing was out of place here, and CLAMP were able to portray their relationship in a very direct and convincing manner: they just love eachother like family so much. The “I’m gonna tell my brother” thing made me smile, while at the same time feeling Sakura’s frustration for not being able to “scold” Yukito like she wanted to (and like she did with Syaoran, but see, there lies the difference of the feelings for her: Sakura knows that her brother is the person who’s got the strongest bond to Yukito, and so she relays on Touya to knock some sense into him, while she is the one who gets more affected by Syaoran’s attempts to suicide to protect her, so she’s the one getting “angry” at him). The only thing that bothered me a little is that the “pinky promise” was kind of a SyaoSaku thing, since in the old manga/anime it was such a recurring sweet moment between those two. And nothing, there goes the “exclusivity” of the pinky promise for those two. XD At this point I expect something even more emotional for SyaoSaku, CLAMP!

A new Clear Card

The pinky promise triggers an unexpected event: the birth of a new Clear Card. It must mean that to Sakura, that promise meant so so much. In fact, she hopes that this new card will be able to help Yukito, somehow.

And punctual as always, Kaito detects what just happened. The card, and Yukito’s new powers too. He comments on Sakura having so many allies, while he’s all alone in his mission. Momo’s words, “Do you really think you’re all alone?”, express all the pain and sadness of the white book guardian for the current situation, a situation in which she would probably want to scream at him but she just can’t, and yet Kaito’s answer is like a knife in the flesh: “Always been and always will be”. And, as if on cue, Akiho appears right in that moment, wanting to help Kaito with the dinner. Once again, CLAMP skillfully try to tell us something without using direct words, but rather a “direction choice”: Kaito thinks he’s alone, but he doesn’t realize that not only Momo, but *especially* Akiho too is with him. There’s someone who constantly thinks about him, wants to do nice things for him, someone who’s got feelings for him.....and so we, as readers, can feel even more the absurdity of his blind statement “I’m alone”. The way the chapter ends, with Akiho stating (to be honest I am just a bit confused on how to interpret what she says, as I said in my last post) that she keeps seeing Alice in her dreams every night, and that she keeps getting new powers, with her wand and cards, is kinda reminding us that we’re getting nearer and nearer to the moment in which everything will be revealed, especially with that seconds hand on the watch starting to move again. So that’s it, for now! At the end of this month we’ll get a special short chapter, for which I’m not sure I’ll do the recap & comments post (depending on the relevance of the short story itself), and then we’ll get a break. It’s gonna be long, but eventually the story will be back! Let’s hope during these months there will be some nice announcement, hahaha (and not like the sudden drop of Happiness Memories, which will shut down on June 30th, have you heard???).

Waiting for your comments as usual, of course!