#like it's literally in the fucking text it's a matter of who influences who!!!!!!!!!

[lonesomedotmp3]

shawn and cory are the real freaks if we're being real here i'm not blind ok however the show has never ever shyed away from their dynamic or letting them help each other grow etc etc like there's not much to say because it's just in the text that they're like this and you can't even go anywhere with it in your head unless you're a heathen who wants to break up my friends cory and topanga... they're best friends they love each other they complete each other yada yada. jack and eric on the other hand are so insanity inducing because for all intents and purposes they SHOULD have this profound affect on each other's lives altering their paths and themselves irrevocably like they fundamentally complete and heal each other it's written into the very core of their dynamic. but they just... don't? they never get the chance to breach the walls they've built that ONLY the other can ever dismantle. by design. and well it haunts me every day.

[brittlebutch]

actually it's kind of funny how people will say Alex's fatal flaw is that he 'doesn't ask for help' and that it's his determination to handle things on his own that leads to his deterioration and eventual death when his whole introduction to the present-day timeline was a very literal cry for help that simply went ignored

[wednesdaysky]

I like how Gortash is kind of a hidden foil to the theme of "breaking free from those who abuse you" and "perpetuating the cycle of abuse" that runs throughout all of BG3.

He was hurt very badly. What did he learn from it? That you're ultimately alone, nobody is going to come save you, the only person on your side is yourself. He didn't have a Tav/anyone else to come help him, or if he did, he refused to let their words get through to him. He dragged himself out of literal hell -- from there decided he was going to make the entire world pay for what was done to him. From there never grew up from the kind of simple fantasy a child would come up with, I'll be better than you, nyah nyah. From there did an Ascended Astarion and did live his own worst life.

His parents had power over him but decided they'd rather have money than another mouth to feed? Fuck them, Enver could earn more money than they ever had. Raphael had power over him and lived a life of luxury while treating his slaves to all the horrors of life amongst devils? Fuck him, Enver could accumulate more luxury than even a devil would ever have, even steal his coveted toy. He was smart, he could outwit them, he could be worse than them if needed and leave them all crying in the dust at his success.

And then he did whatever was necessary, the way his own family had done what was necessary, no matter how dirty. Went on to beg, borrow, and steal his way to the good life with no sleazy stone unturned. Seducing people to steal from them? Who cares, if they don't notice he's doing it then they're idiots and deserve to be taken for a ride. Weapons dealing? Barely a crime at all, if he wasn't doing it someone else would. Selling slaves? Who cares, it was done to him and he got out, anybody who can't is just a weakling. Selling Karlach in specific? Betraying those who trust you to make a quick buck is just good business, he had it done to him and he's fine. Playing with people's souls and lives in the most horrific fashion possible? Whatever, it's not his soul and they're not worth that much anyway, devils literally spend them as currency.

Hitch your wagon to somebody more powerful than you, use their influence to gain more power over others, then step on them to climb your way up the ladder -- that's the way you get what you want out of life. It's no surprise that he threw in his lot with Bane. Sure, he's technically got a new master holding authority over his head (though with as arrogant and self-aggrandizing as he is, I can picture him even thinking "I already outfoxed two powerful devils, I'm about to rule the world, so...what's a single god really?"), but all these stupid mortals underneath him? Now they have to do whatever he wants. It's childish petty revenge taken to the utmost logical extreme possible. Everybody he ever hated, everybody who ever wronged him, everybody who might want to wrong him, they have no choice but to bow and scrape forever and it's the best kind of vengeance against the world to be able to hold that over them. Just consider what he does to his parents. He could've just killed them. Instead his wrath comes in the form of making them watch his success while trapping them in an unending hell they can never escape for as long as they live. The same fate they would have abandoned him to if things had gone differently.

So much of this is told through text notes and little side details that it's easy to miss, but I love that one of our main villains is somebody who suffered in a very similar way to some of the main cast members and his response to that wasn't trying to become better than what was done to him, it was to aim himself straight toward way, way worse.

[beatrixstonehill2]

"Ughhhh, it happened again! I swear this is almost every time I go out these days, it's getting ridiculous! I was out running errands, about to get some coffee, when I took a moment to hold my belly and pant a bit. You know, normal contractions every girl carrying quintuplets gets like constantly. I'm only six months along! But I guess an ambulance parked nearby saw it and, well, you know the new laws. Basically pregnant girls are public property, and at least in my line of work (school teacher), I have to maintain a pregnant physique or I can get fined, even lose my job. Same with healthcare, food service, retail, hospitality.... Most jobs, honestly. Welcome to Georgia, I guess. Still happy I got transferred here a couple years ago but these laws are a bit out of hand.....

Speaking of which! The ambulance pulls up, two men come out. I try to stop them but they insist on testing me for signs of labor. I explain that I'm only six months and they tell me to be quiet so they can do their jobs. They remove my clothes with scissors and shoot me up with some kind of opioid that makes me really loopy and high. They take me to the hospital as the men take videos of me on their phones, spreading my legs, showing off my pussy, spreading it open under the guise of looking for how dilated I am. But they were literally playing with my pussy, rubbing it, sticking their fingers in with gloves, shoving instruments into it. At one point about seven different instruments were jammed into my pussy and I came, squirted all over. They got mad and told me if I act up like that they can't perform their jobs. I apologized for cumming.

They took me in and surprise-surprise, the ER was full of pregnant girls. Some were texting on their phones, shaking their heads as they got C-sections, filming themselves having it done, as others impatiently waited to be stitched up afterwards, grumbling about just wanting to go home and get knocked up again already. Aloof male nurses and physicians would pass them by and tell them not to be so impatient, that they were very busy...... mostly just probing and abusing cute pregnant girls.

They ran their 'tests'..... again, happened to me just a few days ago. So I'm used to it. They squeeze my tits and got 'milk samples'. I have to give them urine samples, over and over, as I piss with no privacy in a busy auditorium they used as an ER, full of girls like me, with various lines for either labor, forced C-sections, or general 'testing'. They of course gave me an enema, in a crowded room, complaining about the mess I was making as other girls were subjected to the same in one corner that was all tile with some showerheads. We were sprayed off and dried off as they had salon workers there doll us up before we were subjected to 'labor sensitivity testing'.

I tried explaining that I'm six months but they had ten different men with huge cocks fuck my pussy. A few even tried my ass, too, to see if I was susceptible to being induced. Nope. My womb can handle all the punishment Georgia can throw at it. I commute on public transportation, doesn't matter how pregnant I am, men try to fuck the babies out of me, like, every day. No luck! So, after that they told me I was OK'd to go home, as my babies weren't quite big enough for them to put me in the C-section area with all those other bored influencer girls.

So, with my hospital bracelet, purse, and jewelry as my only clothing, they spanked me on my way out the door of the hospital and told me not to be a stranger. I walked home naked, got fucked about ten times on the way back. I was even paid by a few guys who thought I was turning tricks. Guess I can add whore to my resume now. I even got fucked in line, paying for my coffee. The man behind me didn't say a word. I started paying and he just rammed his cock in me and started fucking me. Big fat nerdy guy, but his cock was big. Probably hasn't showered in a week. Instead of telling him to stop having his way with me, another cashier opened a different register, and they said nothing until he came inside me, spanked me, then smacked my belly a few times while climaxing. The cashier finally told me I was holding up the line after that, and I left, not before one of my neighbors fucked me as I checked our mailbox. He apologized afterword and told me I look incredibly sexy so pregnant. I thanked him and reminded him I'm only six months.... Now it's time for a shower. After that I might go back out. Who knows.... another ambulance might spot me. ❤️"

[mcyt-trios]

PROPAGANDA:

Eclipse Federation:

i dont like them. they ruined my life. Subz and Vitalasy had already partnered in previous seasons but this one, Vitalasy ended up leaving for a few months, leaving Subz alone, and Zam ended up getting close to him after immense trauma at the hands of his former teammates. Zam has done SO many wrongs, including to Subz himself and Subz STILL took him in and made him join Eclipse Federation after Zam died 14 times in a row and got banned then revived by the same player who's been killing him all this time. And it could've been perfect but no, Zam had betrayed his previous team due to them using dupes via exploits, and now Eclipse Federation ALSO has exploits! And he decided that yeah his morals were more important than being loved! And so he murders Vitalasy when he's at his most vulnerable point, lets everyone gaslight him into thinking Vitalasy is an irredeemable evil monster who will never change, even as Vitalasy SAID he was ready to change before the betrayal even happened, Eclipse threw out their whole revenge plans because of Zam's positive influence and he just broke everything. Subz couldn't be with Zam but also couldn't see himself at Vitalasy's side, leaving him alone. Vitalasy hated Zam and yet never killed him or hunted him down, despite Zam acting like he did. And when Vitalasy left, banning himself off from the server, Zam had some time alone to think and realized he fucked up SOOOO bad. And Subz revived Vitalasy and told him to kill him. And ban him. His last wish. His Deliverance. And to make up with Zam. And Vitalasy tried, and they kind of did make up over Subz's death, but then Zam was like "actually im going to kill everyone and destroy the server now. because i want subz back and also because i always do extremely drastic things when i don't need to because i have unchecked mental illnesses i refuse to get help for". And surprisingly when Subz came back he didn't like that! And they ended in tragedy! Eclipse is fucked up. It's a trio that's always about the absence of one person, it's a team that could only happen in one timeline and it was doomed from the very start. But the love was there. It made everything worse, truthfully. But it was there. And that matters. Also as a fun fact Zam himself on twitter has referred to eclipse as a throuple, which is not canon but that's pretty funny. he also stated on stream he didn't want to get therapy because it'd ruin his lifesteal character. and there was a saga where they would "marry" (challenge lost kinda shenanigans) and zam was the only one happy about it. he's not normal. there's something wrong with him. love that for him though sorry for the block of text. I really dislike them. They're my beloveds :3

L'mantrio:

brothers in arms. nothing much to say here I'm bad at propaganda sorey

They're brothers your honor, they're the original 3 members of l'manburg, they're so underrated, they're literally my favorite ever trio

[etaleah]

Absolutely sucks that your blog is ravaged with proshipping apologia. Like yeah enjoying dark subject matter in fiction doesn't mean you condone it IRL (I myself am an avid gore and kink fan and use that to express my feelings in art) but uhhh there's a difference between depicting pedophilia in a story and actively jacking it to child porn which is what most if not all proshippers are trying to justify.

The Venn diagram between proshippers and anime lolicons is a circle. "Ohhh it's not real" yeah sure technically but that's still very much a child being raped on screen you're getting your rocks off to. Being in the second dimension doesn't negate that.

Most proshippers don't actually care about properly depicting complex subject matter in art. They just wanna write their incest rape South Park fics and call anyone who calls them out on it "puritans." (I doubt any of you really understand what that word means. If not liking child porn makes me a puritan then call me the Virgin fucking Mary.) It's all excuses, excuses.

Fiction affects reality more than you think. It's why propaganda is so effective. It's why Jim Crow and minstrelsy was (and still is tbh) so harmful to African Americans. Why do you think POC care about how they're depicted in media so much? It very much influences thinking, how people see the world.

(There is an argument to be made about the rampant racism in fandom, but that's a whole other conversation.)

Don't dismiss this ask. I want you to read it very carefully and get yourself out of the echo chamber you've put yourself in. Consider the points made at the very least. Use the "critical thinking" you claim to love so much.

I have considered the points you made and read them very carefully, and I have found them incorrect, relying on faulty logic, and full of unverified assumptions and false equivalences. I now bring you a full breakdown of exactly why, though I’m putting it under a cut in case anyone wants to avoid the Discourse™ because this breakdown is a long one.

*cracks knuckles* Here we go!

You clearly have a different definition of “proship” than I do. I and those that I have reblogged or liked (as far as I can tell) are “proship” in the sense that we’re arguing for the freedom to read what you want and write what you want because thoughtcrime isn’t real, no one gets hurt inside your head, and the ability to read and write what we wish is vital to a free society. That’s my definition of “proship,” and if you have a different definition and are determined to stick to it, there’s not much I can do about that. I can only tell you what my definition is so that you know what I’m referring to when I talk about it in this post or reblog posts mentioning it.

If you’re referring to what’s on AO3 (which is what I am mainly concerned with, as I don’t talk about other fanfic sites on my blog), that is not child porn. It’s not. The term child porn refers to sexual photos and videos of real children, not text-only stories about fictional ones. AO3 does not allow users to upload videos nor does it allow users to upload photos except for their profile pictures, and it is literally written into their Terms of Service that they do not allow child pornography on their site. You couldn’t put child porn on AO3 if you tried. Text by itself with no photos or videos accompanying it is not child porn, and that’s true no matter how disgusting and immoral you find it. I don’t support or justify child porn because I don’t support or justify real children being hurt, which is what actual child porn involves and requires.

What I do support is the freedom for everyone to read and write what they want, and I am not going to stop supporting that.

How do you know that the people reading or writing a fic are “getting their rocks off to” or “actively jacking it” to what's in it? Did they tell you? Have you developed telepathic powers and read their minds? How do you know that people “don’t actually care about properly depicting complex subject matter in art?” Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. You don’t know why someone is reading something and you don’t know why someone is writing something. I have no idea whether the person checking Mein Kampf or Birth of a Nation out of a library is a racist who agrees with everything in both works or a scholar doing research for a paper on racism or just an average joe who wants to see what’s in there for themselves and form their own conclusions, which is a perfectly fine and intellectually healthy thing to want. I don’t know which of these is the case and I’m not going to automatically assume the worst-case scenario, nor am I going to demand that the person checking out those works provide me with an explanation because they don’t owe me one. You don’t know why someone is reading or writing a rape or incest story. Maybe they find it sexy or maybe they’re a victim themselves, working through their trauma by expressing it via the written word. You don’t know which one it is, and they don’t owe you an explanation. I’d advise you not to automatically assume the worst-case scenario either.

Because you know what happens when people assume the worst of an author’s intentions and assume they know what a work is doing? You get situations like Isabel Fall’s and Lindsay Ellis’ where people were sure they knew that the former was being transphobic with her short story and that the latter was trivializing rape with her “rape rap.” They were so sure, as sure as you are in your ask, not a doubt in their minds, didn’t think it was possible for there to be any other reason or interpretation, and so they felt totally justified in harassing those women. I’m sure each of them convinced themselves they were doing this because they were an ally who just cared so much and that those authors deserved the hate they were getting because (gasp!) they wrote something bad and if you write something bad, you should expect to be called out. And then they found out—oops! Turns out Isabel Fall was a trans person and not a cis person being transphobic after all, and was actually writing a story about a subject she had plenty of experience with, and—oops! Turns out Lindsay Ellis was an assault victim herself and she was coping with her trauma in the best way she could because making a lighthearted rap about the subject made it more accessible, easier to deal with, and not as scary and she wasn’t making fun of victims after all. Whoops!

How do you know the people writing these fics you find so horrible aren’t doing something similar to Ellis and Fall? How do you know they aren’t victims working through their grief and trauma in a way that helps them? How do you know you’re not misjudging and assuming the worst of them just like Fall’s and Ellis’ haters misjudged and assumed the worst of them? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. How do you know?

Why do you get to be the authority who decides what “properly depicting complex subject matter in art” even looks like? Maybe someone else read it and decided it was properly depicted; why does your opinion and interpretation matter more than theirs? Why is yours the correct one? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them.

I don’t know what anime lolicon is, so I’m not gonna comment on that, though I will say it disproves your point about the Venn diagram being a circle since I am technically a proshipper and yet I don’t even know what that is. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you can probably find someone using the proship label who has done something bad or supports something bad, but the same can be said about antis. You get assholes in every group. Doesn’t mean everyone in the group is a bad person.

(Also I know this isn’t the most important point here but the fact that you’re more worried about the content of South Park fanfics rather than the South Park show itself says to me that you care more about finding an easy target than about minimizing harm because that show has plenty of racist and anti-Semitic “jokes” in it that are being fed to a much larger audience than any fanfic of it could ever have, yet I don’t see you being worried at all about that. Wonder why.)

(Another less important point but one I’m still going to indulge in: I find your line about “if that makes me a puritan then call me the Virgin Mary” funny in an ironic way because in trying to claim that people don’t know what the word puritan means, you proved that you yourself don’t know what it means by implying that puritan = virgin. Puritan and virgin are not the same thing. Virgin is a state of being that could be voluntary or, if you want sex but can’t find anyone to give it to you, it could be involuntary. One could be a virgin and still be sex-positive just like one could be a religious fundamentalist with ten kids who’s had all the sex required to make those ten kids but still be sex-negative and think that only the straight married baby-making kind is okay and all other kinds are impure and gross. Unlike virginity, puritanism is a mindset, not a state of being, and therefore it is always voluntary. You can be one without being the other. Again, not a super important point, but I thought the irony of that line was funny.)

You do know that Jim Crow was a set of laws and policies set down by the government and enforced by police and courts and not, like…a dirty fanfic or book, right? You do know that? It was and still is a legal framework that’s baked into the justice system and has been the driving force behind everything from mass incarceration to drug policy to redlining and housing to voter disenfranchisement. Bitch, I fucking wish that Jim Crow was nothing more than a bad fanfic or a bad story; that would make it a hell of a lot easier to fight! Acting like any one (fan)fiction writer or any one piece of (fan)fiction has the same amount of power as the fucking US government is some insane false equivalence.

As for the representation argument, you’re misunderstanding what that movement is about and why the founders of it cared about the state of media. We Need Diverse Books and organizations like it did not start their campaigns because they were disgusted by what White writers were doing and wanted to stop them and make sure they could never do it again. They started their campaigns to empower and encourage authors of color. It began when a few Black mothers were looking for books for their kids and realized they couldn’t find any with a Black child on the cover, not because they read something a White person wrote and were so horrified by it that they had to put a stop to it. Being so horrified by something in a story that you have to put a stop to it is what Moms for Liberty does. The goal of the representation matters movement is to diversify the publishing industry since it’s still majority White, to publish more authors of color because most of the authors being published are still White, and to update school curriculums so that students of color can read about and study characters like themselves. All of which are good and reasonable goals. It is not and never was about telling people what they were and were not allowed to write or read, or saying that they’re bad people because of what they write or read.

“Influences thinking” and “affecting reality” are not the same as controlling or determining thinking and reality. If fiction really does affect how people see the real world, then why, in a time when we have more positive books/movies/TV shows/plays of and by POC and positive queer books/movies/TV shows/plays than ever before, are we still dealing with vicious racism and homophobia? If fiction influences thinking and affects reality and how people see the world so much, then why, in a time when we have Drag Queen Story Hour and trans characters are being featured positively in popular TV shows and trans actors are winning awards, are we still dealing with some of the worst transphobia we’ve ever seen? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them.

Fiction doesn’t make things happen. Playing violent video games doesn’t make a person violent. Reading or writing about an immoral act does not mean you agree with, get off to, or are going to do the immoral act. And that’s true regardless of what the immoral act in question is, whether it's gore or kink or rape or incest.

The problem with “you can read/write what you want except for X because X is gross/morally wrong” is that the bigots and mean-spirited folks of the world will find a way to make anything they don’t like into X. That’s the part antis don’t think about. But we’re already seeing it play out in school board meetings.

“We don’t want to ban Maus because it talks about the Holocaust, we want to ban it because uhhh it has pictures of naked prisoners in the camps and therefore it’s pornography.”

“We don’t want to ban Beloved because it talks about slavery, we want to ban it because uhhh it has a slave getting raped in it and therefore it’s pornography and sexually explicit and won’t someone think of the children!”

“We don’t want to ban all of these books because they have Black kids on the covers, we want to ban them because uhhh they’re critical race theory and indoctrination that teaches White kids to hate themselves!”

“We don’t want to keep drag queens out of libraries because we hate them and are transphobic, we want to keep them out of libraries because uhhh they’re sexualizing minors and teaching them to mutilate their genitals!”

Those are real examples. And they will happen to fanfiction too if we’re not careful. Someone doesn’t like Sonadow? Well they’re not against it because they’re homophobic or just don’t like the ship, they’re against it because uhhh it’s pedophilia since Shadow is 50-65 depending on how you count it and Sonic is 15. If it can happen with books, it can happen with fanfiction.

We’ve already seen cases of people running for board positions on AO3 who talked about “cleaning up the site,” and each time it turned out they were homophobic and were very much including queerness in what they considered “dirty.” That’s going to keep happening because antis keep falling for it and getting swept up in a manufactured moral panic without thinking through what the enforcement would be like. The whole reason AO3 has the policies that it does is because these kinds of purges happened regularly on other sites. Every time, people insisted it was “just the bad ones,” “just the immoral ones,” “just the underage ones,” etc. And it never was. And after every purge, there’d be a lot fewer queer love stories in the world.

How are you going to make sure that doesn’t happen again? How will you decide whose definitions of terms like “pedophilia,” “grooming,” “underage,” “sexualizing,” “fetishizing” get used? That’s the part antis never think about, is what enforcement of what they want would actually involve. Some people think “underage” is anyone under 25 or under 20 and some think it’s anyone under 18. Which one is right? Who gets to decide? Which country’s age of consent is the correct one that fanfic writers around the world all have to abide by regardless of where they’re from, and why is that country’s age of consent the correct one? Whose interpretation of a work is the correct one? And whoever ends up making these decisions, how will you stop this decision maker who gets to say what counts as “properly and improperly depicting complex subject matter” and what doesn’t from shifting the goalposts and abusing their power? How will you stop them from applying those negative labels to just any work they don’t like? What checks and balances will be put in place to keep whoever does the fanfiction gatekeeping from abusing that position? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. I’ve yet to see an anti have an answer to these questions.

I know propaganda is effective because you’ve fallen for it. The idea that peoples’ ability to read and write what they want must be restricted because Think of the Children™ and because “only bad people would ever want to read/write something bad” is the same talking points used by Moms for Liberty, Ron DeSantis, the people protesting Drag Queen Story Hour, and so many others. Every single time an attempt is made to restrict the freedom to read and write, it is always couched in the paternalistic language of protection, safety, just looking out for kids, and the fearmongering language of “that stuff is freaky, dirty, and gross and only a pervert would ever have a problem with it being banned.” Every time, it is discussed with the language of protection and safety, and every time, it is a lie.

I support the right of everyone to read and write what they want because I don’t know their situation, don’t have the right to demand an explanation of their situation or a detailed account of their very private and personal traumas, and have seen what happens when people try to excuse banning and censorship of written text or harassing authors with the excuses of “it’s just the bad ones,” “we’re just protecting kids,” “we just have a few concerns,” “we’re just being good allies,” and “if I wrote something gross I’d expect to get called out!”

So. Now that I have responded to your points, I hope that you will very carefully read and consider my points at the very least and get out of your echo chamber and use some critical thinking too. The fact that you put the phrase critical thinking in quotes like it’s a fake thing that doesn’t exist instead of a real and very important skill reveals a lot more than I think you meant it to, but still I hope you try.

I’ve disabled anonymous asks because I want to see if you’re brave enough to respond without hiding behind anonymity. I’ll be interested to see if you or anyone who agrees with you actually provides thoughtful, well-reasoned, and well-articulated answers to the questions I’ve asked instead of replying with a thought-terminating ad hominem like “That was a lot of words to say that you’re a [insert bad thing here]!” or “Just say you [insert bad thing here] and go!” And if you can actually provide evidence for your claims, if you can provide non-anecdotal, verifiable studies and data that are not from a religious or rightwing think tank that prove your points about proshipping and proshippers, then I’ll really be impressed.

I’m not holding my breath though.

[mokisano]

Osuke Neko-Kun | Yarichin Bitch Club x Male reader [Pologue]

cw: Threesome, male sex, blow jobs, creampies, hate fuck, mating press, possible polyamorous relationship, mostly Ayato Yuri x Reader, Platonic relationships, oral sex, fingering, anal, BDSM, gangbang, sex toys eg. vibrators, pegging, rough sex, fluff, mentions and light descriptions of abuse

Summary: The new transfer student, [Name] [Last Name], has been moved to study at the 'great' all-boys boarding school Morimori Academy and has been quite excited to meet his best friends from middle school Yuri Ayato and Tamura Yui, especially Yuri, thinking nothing has changed from the year they haven't seen each other but oh boy is he wrong. Everything he seemed to once know about them has changed once he joined the school's Photography Club.

He's in for a hell of a ride. Literally.

People who identify as Female and minors DNI! This is not for you! If older female readers are looking for a Yari-bu x Reader I suggest reading 'That Girl' by @mozumon the story will also have content warnings like mine and their writing also has influenced me to make this story! Of course, it will not be the same but I'd still like to share their series with others! I'd like to include the reader has three little hairs poking out on his hair, I wanted to say this since I will be using this detail quiet a lot This story will also have major spoilers for the manga so read with caution! I don’t own the characters, all were originally made and written by Ogeretsu Tanaka.

You were laying down in your room, unable to sleep as you scrolled through your phone trying to forget about everything that happened during the day before getting a message from one of your closest friends. Once seeing the contact name you didn't hesitate for a second and pressed the name.

-

Yuri-kun : 'NEKO-CHYANNNN'

-

Once you saw what he said smiled lightly to yourself at the silly nickname. You never really understood why he started calling you it once he started High School with Tamura, and no matter how many times you asked about it you never understood a thing he said, but you liked the name regardless.

Recently the iconic pink-haired male has been texting you nonstop after you finished your third year of middle school and you messaged him you managed to get your father to let you go to MoriMori.

-

'Yuri-kun?'

Yuri-kun : 'Neko-chyan join Club?!?'

'ah, I haven't really thought about it. What club are you in Yuri-kun?'

-

You waited for a couple of minutes for Yuri to reply, seeing that he was thinking about what to say, which didn't really bother you much until he suddenly replied with:

-

Yuri-kun : 'Photo! PEWPEW CHIN!'

'Photography..It sounds like one of the more calming clubs'

Yuri-kun : 'COM!! JOIN JOIN~'

'www I'll see! Oyasumi Yuri-kun ^-^'

Yuri-kun : 'OYAsUmI~ aeuehefa~'

-

You sighed with an embarrassingly big smile on your face as you turned off your phone and put it on charge and snuggled up in your blankets and pillows, even after all this time Yuri hasn't changed a bit and it somehow comforts you knowing that things haven't changed that much.

You slowly started to fall asleep, your eyes looking at the stickers on your guitar in the corner of your room before finally sleeping.

ᴍ✿ʟɪꜱᴛ! | Previous Chapter <☆> Next Chapter

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

medialog may 2k24

not me being on time...

watched

the pilot of star trek: deep space nine - i normally would not list a single episode of television here but (1) it's almost two fucking hours long and (2) i watched this in some ways as one might watch a movie, i.e. at a friend's behalf without any expectation of continuing. i'm not sure that i will continue because as we all know i'm not the biggest fan of space, but i will say that my friend had been on me for ages about this and i truly could not imagine what he thought the appeal might be and then it turned out to be literally about colonialism and trauma so i was like.... okay..... points were made......

i saw the TV glow - on letterboxd i called this "beautiful, aching, strange," which i think sums it up. the visual look of this movie has really stayed with me, as have certain scenes (the neck-drawing scene - one of the most intimate, tender, & vulnerable moments i've ever seen in a movie), as has the way that i didn't really know how to watch it or what it was doing until the very end, which made it sort of curious in the moment but felt right in the end because it's about people who don't know what story they're in (made me think a little, weirdly, of the green knight, which i had a similar experience with). i also just appreciated its loving fidelity, even as that affection is complicated by the text itself, for the aesthetics of the first nickelodeon generation, and the fact that one of the things it's about is the idea of being life-changingly obsessed with something that's objectively kind of stupid.

challengers - "is this movie good" wrong question. right question is "does this movie fuck" and the answer is ABSOLUTELY. i'm gonna say something very controversial which is the more i think about it the more i think the movie was correct to include no real actual sex scenes and that in this specific case i truly believe if there was more fucking it would be less horny. last moment maybe the most purely elation-producing thing i have seen in a movie all year.

thief - i continue to be so glad to have been gently michael mann pilled by @power-chords; he is such an incredibly reliable filmmaker for making movies that are incredibly entertaining and well-made scene-to-scene but always manage to be so much meatier and more interesting in their writing & execution than the plot summary might lead you to assume. like, every time i watch one of his movies about white guys doing crimes, something people make a zillion movies about each year, i'm like, how come they don't all just do it like this guy? this one doesn't quite have the kick-it-to-eleven-something-extra to land it in top-tier mann territory for me personally, but it's still great, with a killer lead performance. it really brought home for me how much his movies are driven by a firm belief in the fact that people have personal philosophies that matter to them in a real way, and that one thing that makes him interesting and distinct is his insistence (here as in heat & blackhat) that that applies not just equally but possibly more so to people who have been incarcerated, and in fact his insistence on viewing incarceration itself as a situation which forces people to develop and articulate their personal philosophies as a matter of psychological survival (while obviously influencing what that philosophy is).

trouble in paradise - my letterboxd review of this was "siri play cowboy like me" and i stand by that: girl and boy meet cute in a classic scammer4scammer relationship, things get complicated on a later trick but ultimately they'll be loyal to each other and no one else until the end. i liked that but lubitsch is also a filmmaker who has turned out a bunch of kick-it-to-eleven movies that really wowed me and this felt a little light compared to the deranged battle-of-the-sexes fantasia bluebeard's eighth wife, the unbelievably dark and unbelievably funny WWII farce to be or not to be, or the OG MMF threesome celebration design for living. this one is just a very nice time, although i do need to stress that if it had been my first lubitsch i probably would have been more impressed, and the highs against which i am measuring it are EXTREMELY high

the bourne identity - did you know that brian cox and julia stiles are both in this movie? think about that for a minute. anyway this is decently fun

the bourne supremacy - kicks like 200% more ass than the first one, much more concerned with delivering awesome set pieces happening as frequently as possible. crazy to watch the shaky-cam action scenes in this after 7 million incoherent shitty shaky-cam action scenes and really savor the fact that even though it FEELS out of control and wild, actually you can tell what is going on with perfect clarity the entire time!

perfect blue - this is like the most incredible movie i have seen in my entire life holy shit????? just an incredible exploration of celebrity, identity, projection, parasocial relationships, the viciousness and dehumanization women in the public eye experience within the entertainment industry and without, often from people who identify as their biggest fans... also one of the only movies (seriously it's like... this and eighth grade? what else is there?) to make meaningful use of the affective/psychological/metaphorical dimension of the internet (in a way that makes clear that with the internet it's hard to suss those three apart), despite the fact that it came out in 1997 and features a scene of someone explaining to the protagonist how to go online. like it came out THAT early and ALSO: features a scene where our constantly dissociating heroine whose grasp on reality is dissolving reads a blog an obsessive stalker has been writing in her voice and uses it to identify what she did that day... like satoshi kon (RIP) your mind... this is also probably the animated movie i've seen that makes the most interesting use of the fact that "real" and "fake" can plausibly look identical in animation. it's a dark and viscerally disturbing watch with some deeply cynical observations and yet ultimately feels very humane and not wholly depressing... it's a miracle to me this movie exists i really can't believe how good it was. everything i've ever wanted happening at once.

furiosa: a mad max saga - i'm so glad chris hemsworth got to be australian in a movie that rocked... darker and slower than fury road, both by design, but i really liked its heaviness, offset (and this is like fury road) by a core humanity that feels like a real commitment. but also it is filled with many scenes that whip unholy amounts of ass.

ball of fire - THIS MOVIE WAS SO FUCKING GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! okay this is a screwball romcom from 1941 and the premise is: "stuffy but sweet grammarian currently serving as the only hot member of an eight-person team of encyclopedists realizes after a chance encounter with a loquacious garbageman seeking trivia help that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated and ventures out of project headquarters to learn the language of the people on the streets, where he also finds a nightclub singer with a smart mouth who unbeknownst to him is a gangster's moll tangled in a web of her own." IS THAT NOT THE BEST IDEA FOR A MOVIE YOU HAVE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE???? everything about this movie is SO delightful. gary cooper is so funny and so cute and sweet blushing his way through a belated sexual awakening, barbara stanwyck is charismatic and sharp winning over both him and the seven old nerds who are silly and cartoonish in the best way (but also one of whom gets a monologue that is genuinely moving but whose obscenity is so thinly veiled i TRULY could not believe the board let it through in '41 lmao). this was screening as part of some partnership with the academy where different branches choose movies to highlight and it was selected by the writers, which makes sense because the screenplay is INCREDIBLE, both structurally and line by line. it's somehow both gonzo and intimate, weaving a goofy gangster plot that in the screwball setting reads almost like a parody of noir (the chief goon is named "pastrami" lmao) in at the edges of a genuinely tender love story of the very very best kind, which is two people who surprise each other and consequently themselves, who mutually change each other but not in a way that suggests either of them ever needed to be fixed... and the way this happens is largely through LANGUAGE!! the script is sooo in love with language itself, seeing poetry both in fast-talking street-corner patter and in a line from richard iii that appears in a scene that remains hilarious even as it's also so heart-rending that it elicited not one but two vocal oh's from the person behind me. like, it's so crucial that cooper's character's attitude towards all the slang he's missed while holed up with his books is the excitement of a botanist discovering a new species of fern, totally devoid of condescension or scorn (there's a scene where he tries to understand the meaning of "corny".... it's just so good). this movie felt like a magic trick!!! i just coudn't get over it!!! i was floating on air!!! i was thinking about it all day!!! love yourself and watch it as soon as you're able!!!

ONGOING: interview with the vampire season 2 - Finally Some Good Fucking Food

read

andy greenwald, nothing feels good: punk rock, teenagers, and emo - when i was working on the taylor post i asked nick if the starting line qualified as emo and he responded by pulling this book off the shelf and seeing if they were mentioned (they are, several times). i flipped through it for some additional context and decided to read it for real because i was in the mood for some light nonfiction and it seemed fun and also i know andy greenwald as half of one of the ringer podcasts (the watch, which discusses TV; i had no idea he used to be a music guy). anyway i liked this more than i expected to honestly! you can tell that greenwald genuinely admires the work of many of the bands mentioned, both in emo's hardcore antecedents and in the scene/movement/trend itself (and he devotes a lot of space to the ways emo is all three of those in different ways or sometimes all at once), but you also get the sense that he's approaching this more as a journalist than as a critic, and his primary interest is less the music than the experience of the bands and especially of the fans; it's an oversimplification to say that his argument about emo is that it brings the catharsis of punk to uncool normie teens (given the origin point of my journey with this book, yes, i did constantly find myself stumbling across sentences that sounded like things a person could write about taylor swift lmao), but that's kind of the idea, and crucial here is that greenwald thinks it's good and special that these kids have something that means so much to them, and that's true regardless of the music's artistic merits, which obviously appeals a lot to me, a person whose now deleted perblog had a running tag called #avril lavigne was my kathleen hanna. the sections where he interviews actual teenagers made me choke up... multiple times. i was also kind of pleasantly surprised by how well most of the musicians he interviews come off. a lot of attention is given to chris carrabba of dashboard confessional (not really "of," apparently it's like the mountain goats where the name refers to A Guy and other people also appear variously...) who comes across as sincere and also sincerely actually kind of tormented and unwell to the extent that i found myself like concerned about his mental health, which was not an emotion i expected to ever feel... also the final two chapters are about the internet and the last chapter specifically is about livejournal and as someone who got on liveournal as a teenager the year this book came out, greenwald is more astute about the draw of blogging for young people with many feelings than basically anyone i read pontificating on the topic in high school and maybe anyone since - i'm really hard-pressed to come up with something About The Internet i've read that made me feel "yes! this is true and resonant to my experience of Online!" as much as this did.

courtney summers, the project - summers is one of a handful of authors i actively follow, and this is the first of two books of hers i've missed while having several off-years for reading. like a special gift for me personally, it's about cults, and she nails it; the book has two timelines, one in the present and one in the past, each following one of a pair of sisters drawn into the cult at a different time, in a different way, for different reasons - but to horrifying ends just the same. summers has talked in interviews and in her newsletter about wanting to write books that push at the empathy gap for imperfect victims, and this one pushes it as far as she's ever gone; i just think it's so, so, so great that she asks the reader to watch two different vulnerable people fall for manipulation she knows the reader will be able to spot a mile away and refuses to judge her characters for being manipulated. (also as someone with Some Interest In Cults, but no personal experience... for what it's worth, i think she really nailed the organization, which she says is inspired primarily by the people's temple but will ring familiar to others as well because on a certain level all these places are the same, as well as the charismatic figure at its center. and i thought it was kinda baller to make it an explicitly christian cult.) it's also her plottiest book yet, even more so than sadie, but still retains her knife-sharp interiority. at one point in this book a character who's a journalist says something like "the closer to the bone you get, the less you can be denied," which is an apt a mission statement as she's ever written for herself, and a pretty good one if you're on the market.

listened

dula lipa, radical optimism - dua lipa is to me the living embodiment of that line from the other two, "thank you, john legend! another b-plus!" and, indeed, this album is: Fine

billie eilish, hit me hard and soft - i really wanted to adore this the way i adored happier than ever, which totally blew me away, but i didn't - it's a little too polished, a little too respectable as Well Crafted Pop (as opposed to happier than ever which sort of flirted with respectability vis a vis its subject matter and the oldies influence on its several slower tracks, but which as a project was so eclectic and brimming with ambition that it still felt really electric). but, i mean, it's still good - i really think eilish is top-tier as a songwriter and her lyricism remains distinctive (who else would open her sweetest and most joyful love song yet with a verse saying essentially "kill me if you're gone because i would have no reason to live"?),, and finneas's glossy sheen is never anything less than pleasant to lsiten to - and obviously one of the most famous figures in pop right now putting out a single about how she loves eating pussy and spoiling the shit out of her girlfriend is an unmitigated win. my favorite track is probably the after-album release of the extended cut of the bizarre eurotrash song tucked into the last two minutes of some other normal song, which makes no sense to exist but delights me.

[lord-squiggletits]

The funny thing about Pharma and the Delphi situation is that that's where the concept of the DJD was first introduced (with the first scene with the DJD at work happening literally the issue afterwards, issue #6) and literally the more you learn about the DJD the more it vindicates Pharma in his paranoia and being convinced that he couldn't ask for help like

In the Delphi issues we learn that the DJD hunts down Decepticon turncoats/traitors/etc and that Ambulon, one of the Delphi staff, was a Decepticon traitor. We also learn that their leader is evidently terrifying in addition to being a t-cog addict, but that's it.

Except in the subsequent issue #6 and all issues with the DJD afterwards, we learn a variety of fun facts about the DJD such as

Several of the members either literally transform into torture equipment or have said torture equipment built into their bodies

Their leader, Tarn, the guy with the t-cog addiction that forced Pharma into blackmail, can kill people with just his VOICE

We later learn that the DJD have a fanatical devotion to the Decepticon cause/Megatron such that they literally worship an idol of Megatron

Even later on, we learn that Tarn's kill-you-with-his-voice powers work both over the phone and via recordings of his voice

Tarn is also very talkative during torture sessions and he seems to find pleasure in his stupid, smug-smart guy persona where he likes to describe to victims what's happening to them and why. And there's no reason he wouldn't apply this to Autobots just as much as he does to Decepticon traitors

The DJD have access to signal jamming technologies that make it so that even if their victim can get a help signal out, no one will receive it until weeks after the fact

Their entire system of hunting people down is based on pursuing them no matter what, isolating them from any help, driving them mad with psychological terror, etc

They're capable enough warriors to slaughter an entire ships' worth of people, apparently without sustaining any meaningful casualties

They're drug addicts that are prone to overdosing and/or losing control and slaughtering people while they're under the influence

So like???

If Pharma was only privy to HALF of the things that we as the audience know about the DJD, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that Pharma probably wanted to call for help at some point, but was convinced that doing so would lead to 1. the signal being jammed/blocked so no one would help anyways 2. him and everyone else at Delphi (including the TRAITOR WHO IS ONE OF THEIR EMPLOYEES) would be horribly tortured to death by fanatical Decepticon torturer freaks.

Like I get that in the text Pharma only says that he did the Red Rust stuff so that he wouldn't be caught/blamed for the t-cog deal and is prideful about how he stopped the DJD from murdering Delphi, but like...... there's no fucking way that Pharma going "oh I didn't want to get in trouble and also I'm better than everyone" was his PRIMARY reason for everything on Delphi. Pharma didn't go from perfectly normal/sane Autobot doctor to raving egotistical maniac because he was always an asshole and he decided to solve the DJD issue in an asshole way. It's bc according to all canon evidence we have of the DJD and the way they react to traitors/Autobots, Pharma had every reason to fear for his life and believe that no aid would come to him.

[ju-vondy]

The text I wish I could draw to every Elriel shipper:

What Azriel feels about Elain is lust. The need to fill a void and nothing more. He's desperate because his loved so-called brothers found their mates who ironically were sisters but the third sister wasn't give to him. But what we do know is that Azriel WANTS a mate: this has already become clear at several points in the narrative of the books.

The mating bond is SO much deeper than lust. It's so BEYOND. Azriel will never feel a mating bond snapping with Elain, and guess why? Because she ALREADY HAS A BOND WITH ANOTHER FUCKING MALE. That is true: everyone can smell it, even Azriel can.

So, let Azriel kiss and f*ck with Elain how many time he wants... That will NEVER be a mating bond (that he desperately wants) at the end of the day. That will never be the connection he wants. And I wouldn't bother to see a scene of them going to bed together: I've seen Feyre having s*x with Tamlin, Aelin with Chaol, etc. etc. But did that EVER influenced the end? No. Once them found their partners the past didn't mattered anymore, for God's sake!!

And SJM has already made it clear that when she thinks about "pairing mates together" she always looks for who has the most things in common and also the two people must have a dynamic where one CHALLENGES the other. Like that dog and cat dynamic. Sarah loves writing "bunters."

Do you really think Elain will challenge Azriel, seriously? HOW?! She doesn't fight. She hates violence. She has zero personality. She has no interest in training (seriously, she could have literally shown up at the House to visit Nesta and signed up to participate in the training... But she didn't, clearly because taking care of the garden is more interesting than learning to defend herself, right? LOL). Elain likes SUNSHINE, flowers, baking, gardening, delicate things. Azriel has NOTHING to do with that.

Now: Gwyn is one of those hyperactive people, with orange cat energy. She is the total opposite of Azriel when it comes to communication hahaha and that would be REALLY COOL to see. She being plugged in at 220W and he getting lost thinking "Damn, how can this beautiful thing talk so much?" 😄👐🏻 Gwyn, with this personality, would simply take Azriel out of his comfort zone. Isn't that what SJM likes, after all??! People who challenge each other.

Not to mention Gwyn has a very good sense of humor. That day of the Solstice, Azriel could have simply been rude to her, but he decided to stay and start a conversation with her, joking: "Are you kicking me out?" And soon after, when Azriel said that he had forgotten his dagger and couldn't sleep without it, Gwyn didn't think twice before joking "Ah yes, a comfort for every growing child" and Azriel laughed. Gwyn has a sharp tongue and it would be lovely seeing Azriel losing his mind to it.

Gwyn, like Azriel, is interested in combat. She became the first Valkyrie after hundreds of years (Azriel himself looked at her with admiration when she was about to cut the ribbon) Gwyn likes to sing, Azriel too. She was PISSED when Azriel sneered saying that they wouldn't be able to overcome the obstacles and therefore hadn't thought of a prize for them. Gwyn is competitive and we know that Azriel is too, as Cassian and Rhysand have never managed to defeat him in snowball fights in all these years. Azriel is a master spy, Gwyn spent literally hours sitting up in the trees spying on opponents and monsters when she was in the Rite.

That's and we're the reason why after reading ACOSF I stopped thinking about being Elriel and I'm rooting for the little redhead to be the boy Az's endgame.

She's so much more compatible with him! I liked the idea of Elriel because he had that "forbidden thing" going on and all, but honestly? It would be too cruel to Lucien. And Azriel is too loyal to Rhysand to disobey his orders. Azriel himself said that he didn't go that far with his plans, the only thing he thought about was bitching.

In other words: Az only thinks of Elain as a source of pleasure. But a partnership bond is not that. A bond of partnership is someone who challenges you, complements you and supports you. That's what I want for Az: someone he looks at and admires for who she is, and not just because he feels horny and wants to see how the female will react when he's inside her 🙄😮‍💨

Another thing: I don't want to see him getting some female whose his shadows DISAPPEAR when she is around. That would be too boring! Literally, the bonus chapter already gave us everything: on one page we see the shadows shrinking through Elain's breath and minutes later one of those same shadows intertwines with Gwyn's condensed breathing. And it wasn't just Azriel who calmed down after that conversation, it was the shadows too.

I'm not here saying that Azriel ALREADY DIES IN LOVE with Gwyn, for God's sake! How do you have selective interpretation, right, sweet Elriels?! Guys, Gwyn just appeared in the story (and has already attracted more attention than the plant in 4 books LOL, cry less!) And it's clear that she still has so much to develop! The whole thing just started, you know?

Sarah said she's leaving "crumbs" and "clues" along the way, and clearly the vocabulary says it all. What examples of hints can we notice? The "spark" Azriel felt in his chest and the image glowing quietly even if he buried it down deep. Sarah at one point in the narrative emphasized that Gwyn was "willing to erase Azriel and Cassian's arrogant smiles. Especially Azriel's." Why not let the narration die there in the penultimate sentence? Why did Sarah add *especially Azriel's*? Look at the DYNAMICS there my people 🗣️🗣️🗣️🤏🏻

Also, when Nesta hear Gwyn's singing she describes as if Gwyn's voice was claiming to be freed, to let go! As if there's something inside Gwyn that need to be developed. And Sarah has never been one to leave things loose. Anyway, let's see what fate awaits us!

[baejax-the-great]

Hi! I just wanted to combat that anon (fuck them btw) and say I ADORE your fics.

I’ve plagued everyone to tears in my life over broken oaths and water in the dawn. Your premises never fail to go hard asf. And your prose? It absolutely baffles me how you write so fast when the quality is just next level, and your characterisation of patrochilles? Ugh it scratches such an itch in my brain, you just Get Them.

I recently logged into my ao3 to read sweet victory and realised most of your fics have availability set to logged in users only. Omg I was like a kid on christmas. I have so much reading to do!!!

Your work is incredible, and brings me so much joy. Have a great day!

Hey, thank you! (but also don't worry about that anon. Pretty sure I know who that is and they have a very weak understanding of appropriate behavior (or how to get under my skin for that matter))

Patrochilles crawled into my brain and sleeps there. Prior to them, I can't say I had much interest in Greek myth. I played Hades, someone suggested I read tsoa, I read the Iliad, became obsessed with Ajax somewhere in the middle of that, and two years later, here we are (366k words on the archive???). I like to joke that the muses still wake up every few years and target a random person with "Okay, it's your turn to make sure his glory is eternal like we promised" and then go back to sleep. And possibly the one I got was confused and hit me with the Ajax beam, too.

I also think when Troy (2004) came out, the muses had to work overtime to fix that egregious error

I'm mostly joking. I tend to think of these Greek heroes as the OG comic book characters. Over the years, so many authors have taken a crack at them with their own biases, preferences, and interpretations. Some shit gets retconned. Some new stuff gets canonized. People debate over it. Except those debates end up on jstor instead of reddit or twitter or whatever.

Obviously, though, as one of the current people writing about these guys, I'm right and my cultural biases have no role in influencing my perfect understanding of their characters (/s).

It was interesting going from Hades game, where Patroclus is so snarky and dry, to the Iliad, where when he finally speaks, it's to literally cry with tears streaming down his face to Achilles. I was thinking to myself, well, I'm fine with Supergiant inventing this part of him and I'll keep it for myself. And then he had the best trash talk of all the Achaeans. I had actually put my book down to text a friend "the trash talk in this book absolutely sucks; humans clearly didn't have that down yet" and then the next line was Patroclus telling everyone to shut the fuck up because he was with me on that one. And then he wrecks Hector's shit verbal-style while blind and dying. Love that guy.

Anyway this is all to say many interpretations are good! Except for Troy (2004) and the one where Achilles considered Patroclus his mommy. It's cool to see how people take small details from a 3k yo book and turn it into full characterizations. Less cool to learn just how badly Ajax's original story got warped. I'm super happy these guys inspired me to write so much in the past couple years and that the fandom has honestly been one of the most interesting and engaged that I've come across.

As for the archive-lock, I tend to keep my active WIPs open to guest readers and then lock them after they've been finished for a little while. It's probably not terribly effective, but my hope is this limits some of the constant scraping being done of the archive.

[alstroemerian-dragon]

theres something that really bothers me about the way a lot of people talk about and write peko re: her place as fuyuhiko’s “tool,” especially when it comes to like. despair. and i feel like it stems from a few different places and one of those is definitely uh. distance from the source material. because. w. did we play the same game

like. the second trial is a lot of things. annoying. about the death of a character i dont really care about. kind of confusing. Very Sad At The End. but the one thing it shows beyond any shadow of a doubt is that peko Does Not Want To Be Fuyuhiko’s Tool. she leans into it a lot in that trial, past the stupid. serial killer shit. which is literally just desperation and quick thinking on her part (and non diagetically meant to parallel the first game but whatever). but she does that because it is the only option she thinks she has if she wants to keep fuyuhiko alive. because thats her ultimate goal, right? sure, she’s his tool. sure, theyre Badly and Unhealthily codependent. sure, she was basically groomed to stay at his side no matter what. but…

she also cares about him. genuinely. she loves him. for all that teenagers can properly conceive of love in all its forms, but she at least think she does. but she does truly care about him.

did anybody do her free time events other than me? genuine question. because i dont think someone who wants to ask the guy shes sworn to protect on a date would be content being just his tool. that sure sounds like someone who wants to be on equal footing with him.

like. look. say what you want about the anime. take it with a grain of salt. cherry pick what you like and toss the rest of it out. that sure is what i do!! but even if you do that, youve got to take the text of the game itself into account if you want to have any semblance of regular characterization, and the game makes it clear that she hates this!!! she doesnt want to be his tool! she will fight him on things if she has to! she will disobey him if she has to!!! thats the whole point of the trial!!!!! he told her to run and that he would take the fall and she told him no!!!!!!!!!

and you cant ignore the fact that the time between them starting at hope’s peak and the tragedy hitting the ground running was two whole years. people can change a lot in two years, especially teenagers, and especially high schoolers. idk how long its been since you were in high school (unless you currently are in which case. dear gd im so sorry. good luck) but your mental state in high school is so fucked. you have no idea who you are and neither does anybody else and can you even imagine the kinds of pressure the ultimates would have been under?? again, taking the anime with a grain of salt, but even if you go along with it and think the school was barely a school at all, the pressure from society, from family, from peers still has an impact. everyone was telling them who they were and that thats who they were going to be for the rest of their lives and i doubt ANY of them felt like it.

and even if you subscribe to the idea, like me, that their second year was a downward spiral because of junko’s presence and influence, they still needed somewhere to fall from. the idea that peko was uniquely comfortable being quiet and violent and doing whatever fuyuhiko wanted so she didnt need despair to be his tool is ridiculous. i see the argument of “well watching her friends fall into despair and spiral made her spiral in turn and grow numb to it and retreat into herself until she needed to become fuyuhiko’s tool again as a coping mechanism” but. buddy. That Is Despair.

sometimes i feel like the only person who thinks about despair complexly and maybe thats its own post because this ones too long already but. despair isnt just Being Brainwashed Into A Monster. ignore what the writers told you. okay? look at me. Look Into My Eyes. The Writers Are Fucking Idiots And Dont Know How To Write Good Drama With Genuine Stakes. despair as a nuanced concept is so much more horrifying. different post. sorry. peko.

if peko had not been pulled down by despair just like the rest of them she would have fought tooth and nail to keep fuyuhiko above it. she would have demanded he explain to her why he was doing what he was doing. and she would have told him no.

and of course heres where i get into the accusatory part because the other place a lot of this comes from is, and im sorry, an unwillingness to write complex or nuanced women. not pointing fingers, but reducing peko down into “fuyuhiko’s tool” and “she does whatever he says without question” completely destroys any minuscule amount of agency she has. shes a fucking person. yes, shes pixels on a screen. yes, shes a representation of tropes. but diagetically, within the fiction of the game, she is a human being, and if you want to write her, and not be puppeting around a gddamn cardboard cutout, you have to think of her as a person with agency who makes her own fucking choices. sometimes those choices are taken away from her. but they shouldnt be taken away by you.

[author-morgan]

Hello! I'm currently reading through your amazing backlog of fics, and you are such a compelling and excellent writer. Fan fiction writers add an air of anachronism to anything historical that generally disrupts the flow and takes the reader out of the story, but I never get that when reading your work. As someone who wants to get into writing AC fan fiction, do you have any tips for maintaining historical accuracy? I tried using the games for details but found their info to be lacking. Thanks!

Thank you, thank you. ❤️🥺🥰❤️🥺🥰

Not to sound like a broken record, but research, research, and more research. I won't sugarcoat it because it takes a lot of time to dig around for good sources about certain historical periods, and more often than naught, I find those in scholarly journals or historical texts themselves. Find historians who specialize in a certain period of history. I like Roel Konijnendijk for Ancient History, and, for example, I’ve read the Histories by Herodotus for my Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey stories, especially the long fics. (Just ask @mrsragnarlodbrok, she knows how crazy I can get when looking into historical stuff for fics, even if it's literally almost a PWP, lol.) 

Watch documentaries and listen to trusted podcasts about history! You'll absorb a surprising amount of information just by listening (I often have some sort of documentary on in the background when I'm working from home—the HistoryHit YouTube and related channels are all great places to start looking, especially for Greek-Roman stuff).   

Even though it is difficult to remove the influences of modern morals, standards, and ethics from my worldview and writing, I try my utmost to be true to what would have been commonplace for the societal views and standards within the respective eras — that means someone living in Saxon England is more than likely going to be a Christian and live by what the Church says until the plot potentially demands otherwise! 

It's also vital to understand the limitations of the knowledge and technology of the time you're writing for. One of the most egregious faux pas I can think of in this respect that I’ve seen repeated (whether it be for historical fiction or fanfiction) comes with wound treatment and care — in a world without proper sanitation and antibiotics, things like gut wounds would almost always be fatal. 

Speaking of wound care, look for old medical books and accounts of battlefield treatments (e.g., the American Civil War era) to know how things would have been treated. Looking into the native vegetation from an area and digging around for any medicinal properties can help you construct your own types of authentic (perhaps not accurate, though) cures. This plays into my next point, don't be afraid to make reasonable extrapolations!

Diction! Language matters. Modern language and slang will distract from the overall authenticity of the story if not done with moderation or intent. Sure, you don’t have to go back to Ye Olde English, but make sure you’re picking words that fit, especially in the dialogue, and that there is consistency. Something that helps me write for the Gilded Age (late 1800s) is reading letters people used to write one another. In general, I feel tossing in a few swears (like fuck) now and then won’t kill the mood so much, but if you can find period-appropriate swears, then even better! This is a case where reading historical documents and texts can help.  

Don’t overlook the small things! The small things can help create a sense of authenticity. This can be something like understanding the fabrics and dyes available during a certain time period and the style of clothing that was common (and how these differed between classes). A commoner in the Viking period wouldn’t have silk pillows or “mounds of silk” on their beds. Are certain foods available during the time period you’re writing for? Potatoes are probably the worst offenders for this. 

One last thing is just watching historical/period films and TV shows. Often, there are common bits of misinformation or tropes you can start to spot once you start researching that don't really fit—once you spot those, don't do it (unless there's a very good reason for it)!

I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface, but these are the key ideas and philosophy that guide me when writing fics for historical (and fantasy based on historical eras — Game of Thrones) times. In the end and given the nature of the fandoms I write for, I personally strive for authenticity over true accuracy.

[chaostheatre]

you’ve mentioned how antisemitic stereotypes are given to gideon but could you elaborate on what exactly is going on with that? only if you want to of course!

okay so before I start talking about this I need to acknowledge a few things (for context at the least)

I have not seen the anime, so these may or may not be applicable to it. I don't know, but by default I'm going to ignore the show entirely.

I am not Jewish, and I definitely don't intend to speak over or for anyone on matters like these. I started college as a religious studies major, left to go to film school, and am now going back to religious studies in january. cultural and religious history, especially as is represented in media, is something I've written a LOT about. but I am not an expert.

I AM NOT TRYING TO CANCEL ANYONE. I do not at all think bryan was being intentionally shitty, of course not. antisemitic stereotyping has existed in story villains for HUNDREDS of years and has become an unfortunate presence in popular culture.

my argument for gideon being jewish coded is based on the context of how other creators have represented jewish coded characters. again, it's not intentional, and of course I don't think all jewish people fit into "one box" but we're talking about stereotyping. i.e. what would a jewish villain look like to someone who isn't jewish? look at the discussion around mother gothel from tangled, for example. that's where I'm coming from

I've read nothing to indicate bryan is jewish but if he is and this comes off as distasteful, my bad

okay anyway

if we wanna start off on the base points we can talk about gideon being "stereotypically" jewish (again, from the perspective of a gentile creator). I WISH I could find this post again but I once read something very interesting about neutral and negative stereotypes from an actual jewish person. but that's more where I'm coming from: starting off with gideon being a hebrew name (again this isn't about the anime idc about the anime), being from new york city, and being portrayed by a half jewish actor. all of these are neutral traits and contextual evidence. for me, at least.

alright so with that in mind we can talk about some of the worse ones

being rich and portrayed as a greedy douche about it. materialistic, selfish, vain, capitalistic... the list goes on. this is probably the most egregious

depicted as being an incredibly controlling and powerful force in the music industry AND being the leader of a mysterious organization bent on controlling the lives of the other characters (i.e. ramona and her love interests). gideon says this shit in text it's CRAZY. the league on its own is one thing, totally fine, but within the context it gets a little blurry for me.

having mind control abilities???

being sexually deviant and 'corrupting' a gentile woman (the kink scene is just.... hohhhh my god. depicting bdsm as evil and abusive is one thing but depicting a female character who has only had loving vanilla sex with the hero so far as being LITERALLY controlled and sexually corrupted by the evil kink pervert is NUTS)

THE ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE CHRISTIAN DEVIL. I'm not even reaching here that's a major part of his character and it's fucking insane. the demonization is insane.

you guys can decide for yourselves whether you agree or not. it's not my job to make perceptions for you, and this is just mine. I may be totally wrong, who knows! it's been a while since I've read the books anyway.

there's more I could go on about but the longer I talk about things like christian influence in western media the more insane I sound (comparing scott to jesus in any way whatsoever is honestly kind of blasphemous to me, and I'm non-practicing. however the trope of the heroic resurrection is VERY christian influenced and with gideon being the killer that's. um. uhhh mirroring deicide. but again this is very very very much based on my own perspective as a religious media nerd and there's no solid evidence or ground for my case other than parallels in other christian-influenced media). at the end of the day this is just another iffy villain on a mountain of iffy villains, spanning from the medieval ages to the present.

anyone who knows more abt this is very much welcome and encouraged to add on. turning off rbs so this doesn't become a fandom discourse topic rather than an actual discussion

[sucuretcannelle]

Chapter 1.

"Bree, are you sure you can't turn the heat up, it's fucking freezing in here. Who would've thought that hell would ever be described as cold and brooding?"

Gluttony flopped herself down onto the couch and curled into the blanket she was clutching. In the few moments where she wasn't complaining, her teeth can be heard chattering as she shifted around to find a more comfortable position.

Siran, who was reading in a nearby rocking chair, spoke up without looking at her, "You're well aware that she can't waste her energy like that."

"And you're saying that while you're shivering. You're not slick. We see you."

"Your face is pushed against the couch cushion, what are you seeing exactly?"

"I can see through your bullshit from here."

Orion, who was sitting on the floor against a sofa, sighed and looked at the two Sins that continued to bickering. He seemed to notice that their conversation was quickly going in any, and every direction, including south. "If you're that worried about her getting tired, then get her something to eat."

Gluttony begin to flail under the blanket, causing her feet to slam onto the armrest, "WHO'S GOING OUT THERE. LITERALLY WHO."

Orion turned his head to look at Nash. He stayed quiet until he realized his brother was starting to snore. He turned his back and slammed his fist on his head. The only reaction he got out of that was his eyes opening.

"Bad shit happens when I go out in the cold, you know that."

It's extremely difficult to believe that the entity that is used for cautionary tales across multiple universes is practicing caution himself for once. Or at least that's what Orion thought, by the way he stared at him in concern.

He opened his mouth but no words came out. Aibreanne ended any chance of him saying his sentence when she chimed in, "have you all ever considered asking me how I felt about this?"

Greed looked up from his word problem and stared the princess dead in her eyes, "No, because you'd end up asking us for influence on the matter. We skipped a step this time."

"Had I wanted someone to be that cruel to me, I would've talked to my father—"

Faineance cut her clean off, "Everyone, calm yourselves." Gluttony mumbled a quick "easy for you to say," before letting him continue.

"It's Earthbound." The room went dead silent. He looked around and scoffed at the utter lack of reaction. "Atlas is stuck up there, with all the angels, feasting with his dad every night for the next week. So really, if we wanted to, we could get up and leave."

"In what world do you think we can get into heaven?" Nash shuffled, almost falling right off the sofa.

Orion bumped the back of his head into his brother's forehead, "A world where you're not here."

A series of coughs and sneezes left Envy's mouth before she tried to talk. It was clear that despite Gluttony's whining, she was handling the cold the worst. "It couldn't hurt to ask. He was allowed down here so why can't we go up there?" She barely got her sentences out without sneezing again.

Greed got up from his chair and walked towards Envy, his shoulders tense and his legs stiff. He lifted up the many blankets that she had draped over herself and bundled up under them. He wrapped her arms around her, resting his face on her collarbone.

"Thank you," she murmured.

Gluttony turned to Nash, "Nash I'm so serious, those two are going to freeze to death. Ask Gabriel to hook us up."

"WHY ME? Tell Orion to talk to his own stepdad for once. That's way more direct."

"I would say 'not happening' but I did text him because I felt like my fingers were about to start falling off."

"Honestly, what is he going to say, no?"

"He could." As soon as he responded, his eyes started glowing blue.

"That has to be Yaweh. Why couldn't he just send a message back"

"Why would he ever send messages when he could possess people? Oh, my bad 'fiLL tHeM wItH tHe hOlY spIriT?"

"Ew, gross."

As soon as Orion's eyes began to water from keeping them open, he blinked a few times, the vibrancy leaving his eyes.

"He said he said we can come over, but we actually have to help get the feast ready."

Faineance shrugged and went back to laying down, "I wasn't actually expecting that to work."

Orion slowly got up and walked over to him, "Well?"

"What now?"

"You came up with the idea, so you go shopping."

"You want me to go shopping?"

"Yes."

"Tell your dealer that whatever drugs your taking are working too well because you're on something." He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"I'm assuming you're texting the Courtiers cuz then you'd have to go."

He stopped typing for a second, dragged his fingers across the screen, and then continued typing.

Aibreanne, "did you say he's shopping for food or decorations?"

"You and I are shopping for food, I don't trust him. He'd eat anything. He wouldn't even buy anything to begin with, he might just end up staying here."

Nash turned to him, "Ain't no way you're trying to get some 1 on 1 time with the princess."

"Are you deadass?"

"I'm coming with y'all."

Orion couldn't help but roll his eyes, "The more the merrier...You didn't even want to go anyway—"

Gluttony sat up, "I'll get the drinks."

"Please do not consider poisoning anyone."

"I can't promise that."

"Bring Salem with you."

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, "Fine, I see how it is."

Moments later, Joule walked into the room, holding Duke and Salem by the sleeves of their shirts. Adrienne followed behind them, holding a green planner. The men looked so confused while Adrienne looked like she wanted to be anywhere else.

Joule was quick to speak, "Laura's gone, I have no clue where she is. Erza's technically on break thanks to Ai, and it's so cold that Kam's completely knocked out."

Envy rolled her head back, "That makes me feel so much better about this weather."

"Duke and Joule, you two are cooking when we get back, so just find something to do to make this place warmer so Envy doesn't freeze to death. Aqui and Salem, you're going to buy drinks. Salem, make sure she doesn't kill us all. What else..." Orion stopped talking despite having more to say.

Siran closed his book and got up, "I'll get gifts with Raivath."

"I fully planned on going empty handed but alright, that works. Adrienne, figure out what we're going to wear since Anasuya is clearly incapable of doing so. Anasuya and Kaz are staying here."

For some odd reason, no one objected to that.

"Really? No one's mad? Alright, let's go."

[glassesfreekjr]

Bizarre Idea: Splatoon 3 DLC, but it’s just Shakespeare’s Othello w/ Lil’ Judd as Iago.

Bear with me. I wanna run this by ya’ll.

An enclave of sewer-dwelling salmonids ran afoul of some Fuzzy Ooze byproduct. While ineffective at first, the influence of Fuzzy Ooze proved far more insidious and mutagenic thanks to how entwined salmonids are with the creation process.

Your character (let’s call ‘em “Othello” for literally no reason, no siree) is one of the few “salmonlings” to exist at present. One of the few lucky ones. And as Agent 8 quickly discovers, the only one without a death wish.

“Othello” is inadvertantly pinballed into a scheme by Damp Socks ft. Off the Hook already in progress. Doesn’t matter what they’re up against, but Marigold is probs involved. Pearl & Marina have aquired a taste for espionage and are dragging the unfortunate bandmates they met on tour along with them. Together, they are Squad Desdemona. Their target: Grizz Corp., and its sponsors in higher places (they completely miss the stuff about Alterna.).

In a stroke of luck, they pinpoint the radio frequency Lil’ Judd uses to pose as Mr. Grizz via text-to-speech. In a moment of panic and mental footwork, 'Lil Judd presents himself instead as a Deepthroat-style informant, “Iago”, to lead them away from his hiding place in a nearby broom closet. Unfortunately, the gang sets up base and essentially traps him there.

As the investigation deepens, “Othello” and Agent 8 have several heart-to-hearts conveyed through player-choice answers and commentary from Lil’ Judd/Pearl/Marina.

“Othello” had a little sibling, they think. Back before that schism drove their colony into the sewers to begin with. Before the ooze. They had a sibling, and now they don’t. ”Othello” believes salmonlings like themself cut off from the salmonid cycle of reincarnation, suffers from cataclysmic dysphoria, and sees finding their lost sibling as the only hope left to them.

Then Lil’ Judd manipulates evidence to suggest said sibling was long since slain in a Salmon Run and worms his way into the player character’s psyche. The reason, "Iago” says, that Samonids bum rush to their death is they hope to reincarnate as something better. Cooking themselves alive to escape their fundamental nature. But “the player character, whose nature is altered, is living proof that a “true hope” exists. There needn’t be any more needless Salmon Runs so long as salmonlings exist. Right?

As the plot thickens, Agent 8 puts two and two together and becomes the Emilia of this bizarre retelling. She unravels the entire plot but then is shot through the head and falls into the wrathful ocean, never to be seen again. There is intense mourning. Pearl loses a good buddy and avid lyricist. Marina loses a confidant she could relate to who deeply admired her for who she was. The bandmates of Damp Socks loses a pretty swell acquaintance. “Othello” loses their best friend, their lifeline, and any grip they had left on reality. The player character flies off the deep end.

The jig is up for Lil’ Judd thanks to Agent 8. But the final act is already underway. A gene bomb crafted with Mr. Grizz’s research and a garbled, processed version of Calimari Inkantation at ear-shattering volume, meant to etch itself on people’s souls and alter them irrevocably. Pearl & Marina are horrified beyond words and vow to destroy Lil’ Judd’s ???’s masterstroke.

The unstable player character sees hope instead. “Iago” broadcasts his words one last time, and despite Off the Hook’s pleas, the player character listens. This is a way for salmonids to break free of their wish for reincarnation — to claim what should have always been THEIR’S, standing on their own two feet. A way to make it up to the little sibling they failed. And these two — these rotten people — are trampling over the hope of an entire race. Can’t they see that? Of course they can. They want to. They have forever been unfaithful. They are the enemies of hope.

The final boss is against Squad Desdemona (Pearl & Marina), plus some huge fucking mech i dunno. There’s a electro remix playing that quotes “Una vela! Una vela! Esultate!" from Otello Act I.

The player character clings loosely to the gene bomb as it detonates underseas. There is a flash of light, a brief glimpse of two Smallfry (one a tad larger, and combing the other’s hair into the same style as Little Buddy...) — and then the balance of the world is forever changed.

The fates of Pearl and Marina remain uncertain.