#more word vomit lol

[ohimsummer]

♯ word vomit…,light proofreading, poly! stsg childhood bsfs, implied death, aot universe lol, also suguru crushing on reader if you squint -w-

i prob won’t actually make a fic out of this BUT I am still thinking about aot! au where you and suguru and satoru are all childhood friends. satoru lives in one of the cities (probably within the most inner walls like Sina) but visits the woods/forest where you and suguru reside bc their parents know eachother.

suguru brings him along one day when coming to visit you (where you live alone with your grandmother) and satoru is a bit wary at first but he warms up to you both immediately with some help of the little goodies your grandmother bakes.

satoru considers you a sweetheart as he gets to know you, and he can tell that your grandma is where you get it from. she’s a kind-hearted, elderly lady with a sweet smile who welcomes your two best friends in with open arms. feeds them dinner (less extravagant meals than satoru is used to but the cooking is so delicious that he inhales it nonetheless), bandages their cuts or bruises if they so happen to get any while out playing with you, and considers suguru and satoru extensions of your family. she loves them like they were her own grandkids.

sometimes satoru likes to poke fun at you, mostly at suguru’s expense. like when it started to rain and your coat was at home. suguru offers you his, and though you don’t want him to get drenched, satoru reassures you that ‘oh, trust me, he doesn’t mind at all’ and you ask him what that means but he just laughs you off because suguru hit him and told him to shut up.

sometimes he and suguru go into the city to satoru’s house. you’ve been invited on more than one occasion, each time refusing because your grandma would be by herself and you cannot in good conscience travel too far with no one actively looking out for her should something happen.

on a day when they’re away, deep within the city, both boys overhear the bad news: that titans are within the walls and rampant in the particular area where suguru lives. where you live. alone, you and your frail grandmother.

suguru’s family was lucky enough to make it out alive and find shelter within the next wall. unfortunately, there’s no sight of you for weeks. gojo and geto assume the worst, that their best friend has been mindlessly devoured. that is, until suguru spots you being given rations along with the rest of the survivors.

though they’re elated to see you again, they can tell you’re…different. the light is snuffed from your eyes, you might as well be a walking corpse. suguru asks ‘how are you? is your grandmother okay?’ and judging from the way you flinch, tears welling up in your eyes, it doesn’t take a genius to assume her fate.

[puppetmaster13u]

I love this Au so much and I love the idea of the league thinking that Alfred is the one who built/created the batfam thanks to misunderstandings.

Alfred is unimpressed with the time that Bruce has brought Dick back- and brought guests back!- on a school night.

Au belongs to my mutual @phoenixcatch7 and you deserve to check them out <3

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Proud of how this came out. Anyways some revolutionary war Alfred. I’ll share some thoughts I have about him in regards to my au lore beneath the cut

He’s a stubborn angry irresponsible kid from New England when the war begins, and tbh he’s like this until the American Civil War. He accepted a lot of responsibility at a young age, was rather insecure, too stubborn to really admit he needs help, and deferred a lot to his states - eventually his irresponsibility catches up with him. And he’s also later forced to change his disposition to be more friendly and diplomatic.

He barely gains the support of his own states. He was initially Plymouth colony, existed as basically nothing except as a ward of his cousin Henry/Massachusetts. The states just tbh saw him as the most neutral option amongst themselves given he has no real role & all the other states have great qualms with each other. But they do admire his commitment, and his battle expertise, and also pure strength. They do however see him as an irresponsible kid so they think he’ll be easy to control (they’re not much that older than him)

His cousin Henry is quite supportive of him and sees his potential so he’s really the one pushing Alfred forth. Alfred just agrees to appease his cousin, whom has taken good care of him up until this point. He’s a kid who accepts way too much responsibility and is way in over his head.

Alfred isn’t a stranger to war or violence prior to the Revolution. However during the revolution, I think under the guidance of General Washington he refines his battle skills and learns to better channel his anger into battle rather than being sporadic. He comes to view General Washington as a father-like figure.

[uwurakax]

ー　死神　♡

halloweenie vibes ig, and im probs not even gonna get one fic out for it ( lmaoo whats new ), so just for spoop, enjoy a smol sakusa drabble, bc i felt like being nice to him :')

(( trigger warning for wanting to unalive, but its not bad, prkmise ))

thinking about grim reaper!sakusa who always watches over you;

you both met centuries ago. where? he can't say. how? he doesn't know. why? he forgot those details long ago. he doesn't even remember his life anymore. what he did, his friends or even his family. but he feels a phantom pain when he thinks about them.. family. he thinks maybe he was close to someone once.. its only natural right? at least before he met you.

he does recall one thing however; you died.

he does relive that, and that pain is real. so vividly he remembers praying, crying out to whatever deity or higher power that may be out there to listen. to not take you away from him. how you never had enough time, and that you were taken too soon.

it was the first time he had cried.

he wouldn't, no, couldn't live without you. the haze and cacophony leading up to his final days as a man, as a human, are not a time sakusa likes to reflect back on. barely existing and the shell of the proud man he once was, he just wanted to be with you.

it was peaceful that day the day he decided to take his own life. it was warm, with the sun shining vibrantly and the gentle breeze to offer a soothing kiss on his skin. it was like you were waiting... happy to be reunited.

he never felt the chill of the ocean below, tripping off of the cliff he was determined to jump from and hitting his head. a show of mercy in the hell he had to endure from being parted from you. painless and quick.

sakusa felt weightless when he awoke. was he still alive?

no, he came to find that he was indeed successful. a voice surrounding him that was everywhere and nowhere at all all but confirmed his passing. it also confirmed it had heard his desperate cries and prayers over you. the voice didn't know why, but it was willing to answer sakusa.

it had the power to bring you back, but it would come at a price.

the higher power would grant you life, but sakusa would be cursed to be undead. a leader of lost souls for the unfortunate.. or perhaps fortunate? to guide them into the afterlife.

it didn't matter what he had to do, as long as you got to live. he all but readily accepted, unknowingly cursing you too.

for life, and existence has a balance. if sakusa was cursed with being eternally dead, then you'd be cursed with eternal life.

but one couldn't live forever of course, humans don't live forever. so the universe found a workaround.

you would live and die, again and again and again. forever reincarnating, just to live and having to die; and all sakusa could do was watch.

as he led more and more souls to find everlasting tranquility, he had to watch yours being forced away from him into a new life that would soon become you.

he was confused the first time it happened, watching your reincarnated first life be born and grow. how you became who you were when you were with him. he was content like this, watching you from beyond. as long as you got to live your life.

you married and had kids in that first life, and he couldn't help but wonder if that could've been you and him. how would life have gone for him if you weren't taken away?

he learned early on what exactly he subjected himself and inadvertently, you to.

no matter how many centuries ago it had been, it still never made it easier, and sakusa had soon come to grow cold and disdainful of the world. of everything, and with noway to undo it, he had to withstand it.

be forced to watch the love of his life live without him, and knowing he was the cause of her never being able to reunite with any of her loved ones.

sometimes you'd die young, too young that sakusa couldn't even beat to glance at your soul. other times you'd live a full and long life. he wished every life you had would be like that, and if he had to pull strings to speed up someones passing for hurting you? he was more than happy to oblige. scum didn't need to live, and he was more than happy to send them to the realm now coined as hell.

he didn't know why he kept up with this self torture, tormenting himself to being so close and yet so far from you. at least he never had to forget your face or your voice; the one constant that never changed.

and so he stood, across the road from the coffee shop you liked to frequent, watching as you lived your life; or at least this one. he could practically smell the pumpkin spice. the seasonal drink that became your favourite autumn beverage two lives ago.

you feel someone staring at you as you thank the barista for your drink, the warm takeaway cup heating up your hands. so you look outside the large pane windows, but nothing seems out of the ordinary.

through your entire life you've felt a presence around you, watching you. you couldn't explain it, but it always felt familiar. familiar and safe. like a guardian angel. as ridiculous as it sounded, you always felt like nothing bad could ever happen, but you couldn't help the sad sigh that spilled from your lips. you really wished you could know who was constantly watching over you.

sakusa didn't mean to come as close as he did, at least not while you were awake. he knew his very being emitted a bitter and crisp air. humans could sense death, even if they couldn't see it. a lost soul wandering the busy streets. sakusa lost his empathy long ago, for it died along with you, but he held is tongue and the urge to roll his eyes at the floating mass. it stopped at the corner of the coffee shop, and he made his way over quickly. practically teleporting, going through cars and people, sending shivers through them as he passed. he didn't care. the sooner he could deal and send the soul into the afterlife, the sooner he could be with you.

he hastily guided them, showing them the welcoming light as it faded away. he never saw it, but even he could feel the blinding affable glow when he led them there.

he was ready to go back across until he heard the recognisable sound of tires screeching. please don't let it be you!

a scene he knew all too well was occurring. it didn't matter how many times he saw it, a heartache felt only hundreds of times. it didn't stop him from trying. even if he tried countless times before, knowing the end result would be the same. sakusa would always try, for you, even knowing it was pointless.

so imagine his shock when he can feel you underneath him, a carnage of vehicles behind him and you looking up at him, actually seeing him whispering

"it's you"

[solradguy]

Do you think one could attain decent-ish ability to read Japanese just by studying kanji? Specifically asking because the kanji learnin' service "wanikani" is the single Japanese resource that works best with my brain, but then there are separate resources for grammar and vocab and and and.....

You will get REAAAALLLLLYYY far knowing only the kanji but you're going to have to know hiragana and katakana at some point too. Tofugu, the company that did Wanikani, has two mnemonics-based guides for the kana that are basically Wanikani Lite. They're how I learned the kana and I swear by them.

Here's hiragana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/

And katakana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/

Hiragana are especially vital to learning kanji; you won't be able to use 99% of Japanese-English dictionaries without them. BUT they're pretty easy and the rules for using them are consistent. You won't have to remember any irregular exceptions for any of them.

I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard really good things about the Crystal Hunters manga series as a fun/low stress way to learning Japanese vocab and grammar. It eases the reader into new concepts and then repeats them throughout the chapter so you remember them. There are free vocab and study guides/lists for each chapter too. Might be worth checking out once you get some kanji and the kana under your belt? The first book is also free.

Official site: https://crystalhuntersmanga.com/

Good luck!!

[clownsalot]

im very normal about fuuta in general but i dont think im ever going to emotionally recover from his fire motif and what it represents for his character and how he reflects the greater theme of justice so that means i must rant about it

(more under the cut because this got longer than i expected whoopsies)

so anyway fire is pretty obviously supposed to be symbolic of his passion for justice right? that fire is all over the place in bring it on. he's wielding it to take down enemies, his signature weapon is a flaming sword. it's what he uses to lead the campaign against the people he's after, the people he's deemed in the wrong.

it's a fucking flaming sword, it's badass as hell!!!! it's what a hero of justice, a knight, would use!!!! it's cool as shit, it's his symbol of justice.

that's how he sees his justice in trial 1.

he's righteous, he wants so badly to believe he was a hero, he was doing it all for a good cause, for justice. his passion for justice was a tool he used to meet those ends, to be a hero, to wave it valiantly in the face of enemies.

the fire, however, is conspicuously absent once he's noticed the blood on his hands

interestingly, despite backdraft as a song title being much more related to his fire motif than bring it on, fire is actually surprisingly absent from the mv's visuals. fire, as in actual orange burning fire, doesn't show up much at all in backdraft except for when both fuuta and his victim begin turning to ashes, and a short bit near the end right after the last chorus when the spraycan explodes in fuuta's face. you know what the mv does show a lot of though?

smoke. and ash. the byproducts of a fire, the byproducts of fuuta's passion for justice.

bringing it back to firefighting for a moment: as many people have already pointed out, backdraft as a firefighting term refers to when a fire that has consumed all available oxygen suddenly explodes when more oxygen is made available, such as when a window or door breaks. the thing about fire hazards, though, is if the fire and the heat don't do someone in, usually it's the smoke. the smoke inhalation causes breathing difficulties and suffocation, making it even more difficult for a person to escape the fire.

in backdraft, instead of fire itself, what we're shown is these byproducts of a fire. the smoke is damaging to human health, and the ash shows that the fire has burned things up and caused destruction, in this case killing someone. all we're shown is the negative results of a fire, in sharp contrast to its badass, positive portrayal in bring it on.

hell, even fuuta himself starts turning to ashes and the spraycan explodes in his face, showing how even he is experiencing the negative results of a fire that has gotten out of his control, how even he has gotten burned by his passion for justice. or, is it es' desire for justice?

translation of fuuta's t2 vd by onigiriico

Me, too! I was like that, too! I also didn't think it'd turn out that way!

You and I are exactly the same breed! The only difference between us is the clothes we're wearing.

fuuta's justice and es' justice, it's all the same in his head now, he directly tells es that they're the same, that we're the same. it's all the same hunger for justice that ends up causing harm even if that wasn't the intention.

you know that saying that fire is a good servant but a bad master? i think that's pretty applicable to fuuta's situation. his passion for the pursuit of justice was great when it was still a tool, a sword he could wield, after all he did manage to shed light on some people's wrongs and bring them to justice. but once it exploded, when it became a backdraft that even he could no longer control, it did more damage than he intended.

it burned even him, it killed a middle schooler. and he recognizes that in backdraft. he only shows us the ways fire that becomes a hazard can go wrong.

translation of fuuta's t2 vd by onigiriico

What did I do? All I did was say that what's wrong is wrong! I was just going off at a bad person online!

I didn't think they would die! I just thought that wrong things are wrong, and that a crime is a crime! You get that, don't you? See? Aren't we the same?

it's just. fire is such a good metaphor for the message of fuuta's character and his arc. it's an amazing illustration of how dangerous it is when you feed a desire for justice too much, when you forget to put a boundary on how you handle that fire. eventually the fire spreads just like how passion for justice becomes zealotry, until more and more things fall under what you consider to be 'punishable' by your standards and goes out of control to hurt people that probably didn't deserve it. it's a warning to set proper boundaries on our own definition and desire for justice and what's 'right' so the good intentions doesn't spiral into harm. it's a reflection of our attitudes towards milgram as the audience responsible for their justice and forgiveness. it's amazing i love it i love fuuta's fire symbolism i love fuuta's character arc and i love milgram's writing so so so much

[rorimoon9597]

"I hate being the captain," Shiro whined.

"No you don't," Adam replied. Shiro pouted and rested his head on the bed next to Adam.

"Sometimes I do, though. I can understand why I was the best person to command an entire warship, but at the same time I can't understand the reason why." Adam snorted.

"I thought that it would be obvious. You're the only one that the Paladins will listen to," he said.

"Sometimes they don't listen," Shiro rebuts.

"They still have a lot of respect for you. It's admirable, how much they care about you."

Shiro can't argue against that. His team has always cared about him, even when he was just a guy who they all looked up to. They'd all come to know him for himself, not for his achievements, and he's glad for that.

"Anyway, the medics say that I'll be free to leave soon. Where will I be sleeping?" Shiro lifted his head to look at Adam better.

"Well... I was wondering if... if you'd like to share a room with me." He didn't expect an answer. He wouldn't be upset at Adam if he declined.

"I'd like that," Adam admitted. Shiro nodded.

"Okay. I'll get spare clothes for you, then," Shiro said. He smiled. "I'm being so awkward right now."

"You are," Adam agreed.

"You love me though."

"I hate it when you're right." Shiro smiled even wider.

"Sure," he said. His comm beeped. He pulled it out and checked it. "I have to go. Something about the Paladin's mission has come up."

"Go. I'll still be here when you get back."

"Alright. If it takes longer than expected then I'll get someone to come with a uniform. Sorry, but you're going to have to wear an orange one."

"It's fine, Takashi. Now go, I'll be fine." There's a fond exasperation in Adam's voice. Shiro stood up and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Adam's forehead.

"Alright. I'll see you later." He left, heading for the meeting room to see what he was needed for.

It's not until dinner time that he's free. He walked to the ship cafeteria, feeling the weight of the day on his shoulders. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed with Adam.

"You look like shit," Adam commented. Shiro looked at him.

"I feel like it," he admitted. Adam smiled at him.

"Come on, you'll feel better after some food, a shower, and some sleep." Adam pulled him into the cafeteria. They grabbed their dinner and sat together to eat.

The crew didn't bother them through out dinner. It was just the two of them, talking and eating. The tension from the day leaked out of Shiro slowly, almost unnoticeable.

When they finished, Adam forced him away from work.

"You need to rest," he insisted. Shiro didn't try to stop him, only asked Curtis to clear the rest of his schedule and to tell the crew that he didn't want to be disturbed.

They made it to their room. Adam pulled Shiro into the bathroom.

"Wait- you don't need to help me here," Shiro said. Adam raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not going to listen to that, and you know it." Shiro sighed.

"I do," he agreed. Adam let go of his hand, only to place his hands on either side of Shiro's face. Adam studied him for a few moments.

"You need some down time, Takashi. Let me take care of you." Shiro leaned into Adam's hands, eyes closed. He held one of Adam's wrists and turned his head to kiss the palm of his hand.

"Alright," he agreed. "I'll let you take care of me."

"Good," Adam said. He removed his hands from Shiro's face and reached into the shower, turning on the water.

Adam was careful in his movements, caring, even. He helped Shiro out of his uniform, chucking parts of it to the side. His fingers traced the scars on his skin. Scars from fights in the gladiator pit and from his Paladin work alike. Adam traced over them with gentle fingers, never lingering too long.

He moved Shiro to stand under the spray of the shower. There was movement outside of the shower, and then Adam was joining him. Shiro was reminded of the times when the pain from his illness was too much for him to move very far, or stand for long. Adam had always helped him shower then, and each time it was with the same gentleness and care.

He wrapped his arms around Adam and buried his face into his shoulder. Adam traced circles onto his skin. It really was comforting, standing here in the shower with the person he loved the most after a relatively stressful day, after being deprived of something like this for so long.

Adam gently pushed Shiro's head away from his shoulder and grabbed the shampoo. Shiro let him massage it into his scalp, practically turning into goo with the motions. When Adam was done, he tilted his head back to wash out the suds. Adam repeated the motions with the conditioner, taking his time to comb out any knots in Shiro's hair. Not that there really was anything, just in his floof. It gave Adam an excuse to spend longer than necessary on Shiro's hair.

When he was finished with that, he moved to washing Shiro's body. He didn't have the energy to be embarrassed by it. Why should he, when they'd done stuff like this before? And Adam was so gentle, it made Shiro want to cry.

"Are you okay?" Adam asked. Shiro nodded.

"Yeah. I just- I've never realised just how much I missed you," he replied. Adam smiled gently. He pulled Shiro into a hug.

"At least we're here, now," Adam said. Shiro pressed a kiss into Adam's shoulder in reply. He decided that it wasn't enough, so He pulled away to press a kiss to Adam's lips. They were just as soft as he remembered.

Funny, how I was able to remember how it feels to kiss him but not how much I love to make him laugh, he thought to himself. He let himself get wrapped up in Adam. The feeling of his skin, his lips, the warmth he brought Shiro. The love that they still had for each other.

"I love you," he whispered when they pulled apart, noses touching.

"I love you too, Takashi," Adam replied. He pressed another kiss to Shiro's lips, then reached out to turn off the water.

Adam dried him off and helped him into clean clothes before he dried himself off and pulled on his own clothes. They climbed into bed together and laid there, facing each other. They just laid there like that. Shiro was still taking in the fact that they were together again.

"What are we?" Shiro asked. He hated how small his voice sounded, how insecure it was.

Adam was silent for a while before he answered.

"I don't know." It was an honest answer, one that was true through and through. Neither of them knew what their relationship status was anymore. All they knew was that they were lovers.

"What do you want us to be?" He wanted Adam to call the shots. It's all he could do, after going off to Kerberos despite Adam's protests.

"I..." Adam trailed off. In the darkness, Shiro could make out the shape of Adam's face. He knew that the other man was thinking. "I know for a fact that I love you, Takashi. I still want to be with you for the rest of my life."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." They went silent again. "What about you, Takashi?"

"I want that too," he admitted. There was the soft sound of movement, and then Adam's hand was cupping his cheek.

"Then let's have that. We don't have to get married now, but I want to do that at some point."

"I want to marry you, too. I was the one who proposed, right?" Shiro said. Adam laughed.

"Yeah. You were a mess."

"Hey!" Shiro pouted. "You said yes anyway." Adam's laughter died down. Shiro could see the smile on his face, even though it was pitch black at that point. The lights had turned off a while ago.

"And I'd say it again. But... it might take a bit for us to get back to that point." Adam was right. Shiro sighed. He moved his head so that his forehead was touching Adam's forehead.

"So... back to boyfriends?" He asked.

"Yeah. At least we're together." Shiro hummed in response.

"That's all that matters now," he agreed.

Shiro wrapped his arms around Adam and tucked himself under his chin.

"Goodnight, Takashi."

"Goodnight. I love you."

"I love you too."

[marley-manson]

what evidence do you have that bj and hawkeye are only friends because they are "trapped in an army base" and "hawkeye doesn't have any better options"?

tbf I didn't say they're only friends because they're trapped on an army base, I said BJ only gets away with his late season shit because they're trapped on an army base. That said, I do think if they'd met anywhere else, like at a medical conference, they wouldn't have become friends, and yeah the way they clash in the later seasons, I don't think they'd stay friends if Hawkeye wasn't stuck with him.

My evidence is:

Hawkeye describing BJ as a good clean-cut family man and adding "Despite that, I really like the guy," in Our Finest Hour, indicating that on a surface level they're not that compatible. On a deeper level of incompatibility, you have episodes like Preventative Medicine where they clash on a deep ethical level and don't reconcile their points, they simply choose to drop the argument. You also have their respective attitudes to hardship as highlighted in later seasons - BJ "saves [his] pshaws for things he can do something about," and largely remains passive give or take moments of sudden lashing out (eg the end of Back Pay) when he loses his self control, while Hawkeye is always acting on his feelings as much as possible whether he can affect change or not, because it helps him not feel helpless. BJ derides and mocks this attitude (calling him crazy in Back Pay and Tell it To the Marines, calling his tongue depressor tower pointless in Depressing News, etc) and Hawkeye ignores him and does what he needs to do anyway. They do not help each other see eye to eye or meet in the middle, they simply clash and do their own thing.

More headcanony, but I also think they're incompatible emotionally, in that Hawkeye wants people to open up to him and spill their feelings, and BJ is one of the characters most allergic to doing that, and almost never supports Hawkeye when he wants to talk about his feelings (Blood and Guts, Depressing News, GFA, etc). They have a very uneven relationship where Hawkeye is BJ's emotional support whenever BJ snaps, but BJ ditches Hawkeye when Hawkeye just needs his emotional support (this is what "Would you hold me in your arms or would you let me lie there and bleed?" is about), and I think BJ tries to make up for this with big gestures, but Hawkeye is more about the day to day support and solidarity with each other.

There's also the intensity of the rebound vibe in Welcome to Korea part 1 where Hawkeye refocuses on BJ after moping about Trapper and seems to deliberately explore how compatible they can be as friends - the babysitter comment to suss out whether he'd be a partner in womanizing, his willingness to break rules and flout authority, his sense of humour. BJ passes, so Hawkeye accepts him. It feels calculated because Hawkeye needs a replacement Trapper. ("We need to get him started on his ulcer," as potential evidence of Hawkeye wanting him to be Trapper 2.0)

BJ's attitude throughout season 4, in which he stamps out his own reactions and feelings to align himself with Hawkeye. The Bus has a thread of a battle of wills between Hawkeye and BJ over whether or not to include Frank, which Hawkeye wins. In Hey Doc he also wants Hawkeye to be nicer to Frank, but in the rest of the season he's right there with Hawkeye making fun of him. In The Gun BJ stands respectfully when Margaret comes to their table and Hawkeye glares at him disapprovingly, so then BJ turns it into a joke, seemingly correcting his own behaviour.

Wheelers and Dealers characterizes BJ as resentful in a way that makes him passive aggressive, which rings very true to his character to me. In Wheelers and Dealers he bemoans being so nice and passive and lashes out. "Who cares about what they want, I'm doing what I want for a change." This obviously says that he buries parts of himself to make nice with people habitually, as part of how he interacts with people, and I think you can see him doing it with Hawkeye early on.

You also have episodes like Heroes and Stars and Stripes where BJ alternately mocks Hawkeye for getting the spotlight and lords his own spotlight over Hawkeye, because he's insecure and presumably feels overshadowed by Hawkeye.

This is all to support my take that BJ moulds himself to suit Hawkeye because they're not intrinsically all that compatible as people, and he resents being the one to do that. So later BJ lashing out with mean pranks and psychological warfare (Bottoms Up, Dear Uncle Abdul, Joker Is Wild, what feels to me like negging in No Laughing Matter, etc) and ditching/mocking Hawkeye when he's upset about something (Back Pay, Depressing News, Give Em Hell Hawkeye, Blood and Guts, etc) is a response to that resentment when he feels more secure in Hawkeye putting up with it.

I think BJ would probably mould himself to fit anyone he wants to be friends with, but I don't think if given the option, he'd choose to be friends with Hawkeye. He disapproves of several things about Hawkeye even initially - his aforementioned lack of patience with Frank, his rampant sexuality (eg he does disapprove of Hawkeye sleeping with Carlye in The More I See You, and you also have several instances of BJ making fun of Hawkeye when it comes to his attitude towards sex, eg Taking the Fifth, Inga). And I don't think Hawkeye would choose to be friends with a monogamous married suburbanite if they weren't forced together right after Hawkeye lost his last war zone bff.

My evidence for Hawkeye only putting up with BJ's late season attitude because he's trapped is that he tries to put his foot down multiple times and fails because a) the 4077 is a very small world, and b) BJ needs his emotional support in a war zone. And every time he comes back they don't address what they fought over or discuss it or reconcile it, they simply drop it because they're reliant on their friendship.

In Ain't Love Grand he sleeps in the front office but comes back to share good news with BJ and emotionally support him. In The Most Unforgettable Characters they drop the fight because it upsets Radar without addressing why they were fighting. In Picture This Margaret manipulates Hawkeye into going back to BJ by lying about BJ needing his support. In The Joker is Wild and Bottoms Up Hawkeye mildly pranks BJ back in a tag and calls them even even though he's taking a loss.

It's also worth noting that Hawkeye hates BJ's friend Leo's extremely weaponized style of pranking. He's fine with shit like exploding cigars, not fine with him getting BJ court martialed. BJ is fine with it and thinks it's funny, which strikes me as another unaddressed incompatibility that feeds into the vibe of BJ's pretty intense psychological warfare later on, which Hawkeye is generally upset by rather than seeing it as all good fun.

And in GFA they both initially intend to leave without seeing each other again, BJ trying to leave a week early despite knowing his travel orders are sus and without saying goodbye or leaving a note, and Hawkeye expecting and ecstatic to be flown home when released from the hospital only to be ordered back to the 4077 for one more week. Also in GFA Hawkeye says goodbye for good, fully expecting to never see BJ again and sad about it but accepting.

Oh also the fact that Welcome to Korea is structured as a series of horrible things happening in a war zone that bond them together through shared trauma is another piece of strong evidence for the reading that being in a warzone together and needing each others' support is why they become friends, when otherwise they might not look twice at each other.

Ultimately you can take all this stuff and also interpret it as two guys who fall in genuine love/intense friendship and put up with each other because of that, but I think there's more than enough evidence that them being trapped together in hell is a major reason they become and stay friends, and imo it's a solid reading of their relationship, and also infinitely more interesting to me.

[violent138]

"#hey I have a serious headcanon that multiple of Gotham's elite were worried about or invested in Bruce's future#not even for court of owl reasons#but because he had the power and wealth to the alter the city the same way his parents did#falcone even tried killing him a bunch"

PLEASE talk more about this i'm begging. I want to hear all about this!!! Go into as much detail as you want but i'd absolutely read a 5k essay on this if you feel up to it

Though this isn't quite a 5K essay, you may come to regret asking lol. But I'm delighted to answer the question (thanks for asking):

Firstly, I guess to set up some Gotham lore, Gotham's a city of seemingly endless opportunity and is subject to constant power grabs. I think Black Mask once listed all the different factions that squabble over Gotham (street gangs, crime families et cetera). One of these groups is the Court of Owls (the society that secretly controls Gotham), made up of Gotham's oldest and wealthiest families.

And Batman comics make a point of repeatedly drawing attention to its key families, Kanes, Waynes, Elliots, Cobblepots (and the Arkhams too should you like to include them). There's an undue influence and importance they wield over the city.

But despite all the different forces that are competing to reshape Gotham in their image, it's the spectre of the Waynes that looms over it all.

This actually makes a lot of sense, since as some of the founders of the city, they were literally involved in creating the city's skyline and appearance. And then past that, there are so many instances and references to how Thomas and Martha (Kane or Arkham) were set on changing the city entirely (possibly a deviation from their more traditional ancestors).

This is the beginning of the loss of control for many others over the city (such as Gotham's wealthy and elite). Even smaller decisions, like Thomas' choice to save Carmine Falcone's life have major repercussions for the city.

The Waynes had a ton of power, buildings and institutions around Gotham hold their name. They were untouched by their potential criminal ties as they reconstructed the city, but it was clear that they were earning the hatred of a lot of powerful players. This includes the Court of Owls (historians still argue)/others, and if you're a fan of the TellTale game, it's clear that Bruce's family may have actually destroyed and usurped power from some of these other powerful families.

Regardless, Thomas and Martha's shocking deaths created a massive power vacuum that everyone would have jumped to take advantage of. And aside from gaining control over the city, all the old-money families would have wanted control over Bruce Wayne.

Because of the deaths of his parents, Bruce becomes a wildcard; he's the sole inheritor of Wayne Enterprises, all the money, power, and prestige his parents wielded. And in a way, it's almost like all the Waynes have some divine right/eldtrichy power over Gotham, by virtue of their fascinating blood line (or just their money).

So everyone would have been trying to control him/adopt him/use his access in the wake of trauma and exploit his age. When it didn't work, they likely all just settled into a stalemate of waiting for him to make moves so they could decide how much of a threat/ally he was.

In a comic I read (I'm sure there are other examples too, can't recall as I answer this), Carmine Falcone tries to kill Bruce Wayne via hired assassin, well after it's been established that nobody's even seen Bruce for a while. Carmine hears that Bruce could be at a party and sends an assassin with both a potent neurotoxin and a sword to ensure the job is done. So long after the deaths of his parents, these concerns of Gotham's warring factions continue.

And once Bruce starts acting on his vision for the city, one that aligns so well with Martha and Thomas' plans for Gotham, he likely cements himself as a threat yet again, and one that hasn't been schooled by his old-money parents in the games and underlying politics of Gotham.

So to continue on the line of thought that the tags came from: Regardless of what choices Bruce eventually makes -> I doubt that the Gotham elite wanted him making them without their influence

As a side note, because I'm kind of obsessed with the lineages that rule Gotham, if you look at Oswald Cobblepot, even as a crime lord descended from the Cobblepots, he's not just a street-level crook, but he also shapes the city.

[the-converse-high-top]

Would love to hear about potential parallel stories/lore in judaism 👁👁👁👁💞

i realized that i actually havent thought very in depth about parallels and themes in the bible in a LONG time but let me think...

one that jumped to the forefront of my mind is something that idk if its a theme/parallel or not, but it has to do with moses. in the torah (really in the talmud i think which is a bunch of rabbi's headcanons about the torah that were then accepted as canon later on), when moses was taken in by pharaoh a test was performed to see whether moses would overthrow him, and by extension whether he was safe to keep and raise. that test was to show baby moses two pots: one of gold and riches and one of hot coals, and whichever he grabbed would be indicative as to what kind of son he'd be. so obviously, being a baby, moses starts to go for the shiny stuff. but (so the story goes) since moses has plot armor an angel (of death [?]) reached out and moved his hand to the hot coals. this is important because not only did it secure his safety to grow up under pharaoh's watch, but it burned his hand, which he then put in his mouth which permanantly burned his tongue and gave him a lisp. now the lisp isnt really talked about much more until later on, and its kind of minor so i get why its often left out, but it changes the whole feeling of the story! because of the lisp, moses gets nervous to speak in front of pharaoh's mages, and so it's aaron who does the talking when they turn their staffs into snakes. it's aaron (iirc) who speaks to the hebrews and tells them the word of god. moses is the one who speaks directly to god and does his bidding in the stories, but aaron is the one who conveys the information. and AND i just remembered this continues!! it continues to be true that moses doesnt always tell his own story!! in the scientific world it is generally accepted that there are a few different authors/compilers of the torah, but in judaism there is one main accepted truth of how it was written with two endings: moses wrote the whole thing up until the last chapter when he was on mount sinai, writing down word for word what god told him to. the ending, though, changes because at the end of the bible moses dies there is a debate over whether moses wrote his own death before it happened (since god is omnipresent blah blah blah) or whether joshua took over for him after he died. if the latter is true, that would be the second time someone tells moses' story for him!! first aaron tells the mages and the hebrews who moses is and why he was sent to save them, and then joshua tells the story of his death and his exile from the holy land! there are THEMES and MOTIFS i can SEE THEM

i have no idea if this is what you were asking for but thank you for inviting me to infodump XD <3

[notpercieved]

Why are people SURPRISED that Alhaitham is nice???

He IS nice, yes hes cold but not intentionally, thats just how he is but he doesnt mean it in a terrible way

He doesnt flaunt any form of superiority over someone since he even says that he personally doesnt value himself more than others, rather hes stating facts that comes o f f as being cocky when hes just saying what IS correct, hes blunt till the point where people often consider it as rude and arrogant but he sees it as something that is normal because thats literally how he is

Yes, being blunt isnt always a good thing and people should know when to say the truth, not lie but postpone it, but theres also a consideration that not everyone is able to always know social cues and multiple (including myself) struggle to pick them up often, and of course it comes with consequences just like how Alhaitham is heavily disliked by some of the professors or even other students for his "unacceptable" attitude

His entire SQ is also about how he doesnt care how others perceive him but puts his foot down when it endangers others even when he doesnt even know who they are and all he wants is just a simple life

Hes not mean nor a terrible person, hes actually a nice person

Just because someone DOESN'T fall into the *common* character type of being a happy go lucky, always cheerful and smiling person doesnt automatically make them mean

[lee-hakhyun]

from an outside perspective it’s really feeling like they’re emphasising kim dokja’s status as an eldritch god. like,,, you don’t feel it through orv because kim dokja himself has just enough knowledge from reading twsa to navigate, and on his own you can really tell how human he actually is, but. take things from a distanced perspective, and suddenly. suddenly, it’s azathoth and the outer gods of lovecraftian lore, played completely straight. i’ve heard enough people compare azathoth and kdj that i think i can say this much

you wanna know something i’ve thought about a lot regarding kdj and the oldest dream? about yjh becoming a terrorist, and how kimcom willingly went back into the fray, how they returned to the previous timeline - and how some people couldn’t comprehend their choices at first? it makes me think of that old trope of ‘going mad from the revelation’, how some people say that gazing upon this otherworldly being’s true form or ‘learning the truth of the world’ would surely make someone go mad.

go mad with what, though? insanity? or grief? because so, so often, one’s pain is incomprehensible to outsiders, and fail to understand how or why you lash out or break down. it’s a depressing pattern in real life, too. kdj goes mad with grief and self-hatred, learning the truth; kimcom take on the insane route of going through the apocalypse again just to reach the end; yjh is unable to heal, to cope with a world without the scenarios and without his companion to bear through it, and so he fights over the replica of the arc. from an outsider’s perspective, without the understanding that the people involved are all brokenhearted over truths only they know, it might come off as insanity. but it’s all just grief.

with that said, however, to have someone jung heewon KNEW, cruel as he was, replaced by someone from a world beyond - and to start singing the praise of someone else’s name? to say ‘i need to find them?’ how all of them look to one name that outsiders simply DO NOT KNOW, to hail this unknown person as important, as an idol, as… as a god…

the 41st turn before their version of shin yoosung travelled to the other worldlines is a forgotten story, and by orv logic forgotten stories are outer gods. in lovecraftian lore, the outer gods sought to wake the blind idiot god azathoth, who in orv is represented by kdj dreaming for ‘eternity’. also, the Outer Gods of orv (the one actually being called as such right now) see the side story - which is the ‘forgotten’ 41st turn, now being written in where once it was not - as their chance to finally be written on the wall. so it’s. it��s. this is just singshong taking their lovecraftian elements to their logical extreme

interestingly, however, kdj isn’t the only reader anymore, is he? orv places a lot of emphasis on communication and writing on the wall, but in the side story it could perhaps be interpreted as ‘trying to be read by one person in particular’. and then the readers that die are labelled as ‘kdj33’ or ‘kdj47’, reducing them to being ‘just a part’, but… they’re all different people. they’re all people who took in kdj’s story, thus his story becomes a part of their own - but only a part. i’ve said that before, but.

well, you can’t force your own narrative on to someone else.

han sooyoung tried that, actually, didn’t she? tried to get kdj back through ending the story early only to realize the hurt she was causing and backing off. you can’t always reach people in the way you want. that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop trying, but there’s also a point where you need to recede, to compromise. am i making sense? i have no idea where singnshong is taking this story, but i’m looking at hsy with lee hakhyun and ceokdj with the readers turned kdj fragments and the outer gods wanting their story written on the wall and. i feel like i’m starting to see a pattern. i could also be hallucinating, but i could also not be. i offer this for your consideration

okay i put this aside for a bit but yes. oh my god. eldritch kdj.. i had not heard about this before, but that's so interesting thinking about it through that lens. and in the side story, hsy forcing the memories of orv on jhw to try to break her.. the explict mentioning of han sooyoung being seen as a 'god' in that moment...

--

fun fact, if you don't remember! lovecraftian horrors are also mentioned as outer gods in orv

chapter 179. when talking with the devourer of dreams, kdj mentioned these modifiers

the fear of sarnath - bokrug

horror from the hills - chaugnar faugn

master of r'lyeh - cthulhu

--

now, adding my own thoughts - the pattern is identity. stories.

there's something wrong with everything in this turn.

the kkomas were cute. until it was revealed that they were dead readers. though.. is that not also kind of what the yoo joonghyuk kkomas are? they may have all been yoo joonghyuk, but their lives in that turn were their own. <- however. the difference here is that while the yjh kkomas were all 'yoo joonghyuk' these kdj kkomas were NOT. they all had their own lives before being brought to wos, and upon being killed and placed in the theater.. they lost themselves.. which is terrifying to think about. you die, and you're brought back to watch your companions go on without you, but you're not yourself anymore. you're kim dokja, who wants to continue watching the stories on the screen.

the transmigrated readers. until the latest chapters, we hadn't been shown the real effect of the readers possessing characters in this world (honestly, we were led to believe that most people transmigrated into 'extras' without their own story. but that's not true, is it?). cheon inho has no one close to him as far as we know (lol), but that's not the same for others. what about the people who knew the possessed characters? lee hakhyun realizes this in the latest chapter, that maybe him and the readers coming here were an additional disaster for the people that lived here.

lee hakhyun's problems,, he's constantly going back and forth on 'lee hakhyun' and 'cheon inho', and there's clearly something wrong with the way he sees himself... we know more about him that he does currently, and if he does find out. i don't think things are going to end well.

and of course. everything about kim dokja. his name is in everyone's minds, the readers are desperate for a source of hope and he has become that to them. kim dokja is being idolized. even before the scenarios, there were those using kim dokja's story in the same way he used yjh. it's not framed as a negative, if that's what you need to do survive, then you should always do what you can to survive, no matter what. but even when you borrow stories, you need to stay yourself. you are your own person.

there's a clear connection with all of these, and it's identity. who someone is, the way they're seen, their stories. what makes you yourself? stories make up who you are, and these outer gods want their own stories written down on the wall to define themselves. rep kdj wanting the readers to forge a new story, lee hakhyun discovering stories that were never told in orv.

right now, nobody's happy. time is running out for the outer gods, the readers have unwittingly destroyed others by taking over these 'extras', kimcom are still desperately searching for their star, our dear protagonist is continuing to doubt himself. and kim dokja is still watching.

...this is orv. not everyone will get their happy ending. their goals oppose each other. we can hope for the best, but that isn't going to happen.

[meimi-haneoka]

Braids - Akiho/Kaito ficlet

I have watched way too many videos of book repairing, and this is the immediate result.

A small fragment of daily life. Akiho: 16-17 years old Kaito: they haven't found a cure for him yet.

Akiho had been sitting at her desk for about 5 hours, pausing only for 15 minutes for a quick snack. This book was due for tomorrow, and she couldn’t wait to see the reaction of her customer once he saw how successful the repair had been.

Kaito was sitting on an armchair of her studio, checking a magic book. Looking up, he couldn’t help but notice how the girl’s blonde locks were dangerously close to get dirty with the PVA glue she was generously spreading over the spine of the text block. Carelessness while working generally meant Akiho was tired.

“Akiho-san...may I?” Akiho felt Kaito approaching, his gentle hands carefully taking a hold of her locks from behind, bringing them on her back and away from the dangerous glue. Then, she realized he started to braid her hair. Her cheeks colored slightly, while her eyes stayed fixed on the brush she was holding, hovering over the book. By now, she was used to have Kaito at various degrees of proximity, but every time his hands brushed on her nape, the tingle they sent through her entire body made it impossible to focus on the task at hand. “Thank you...” she said when she realized he finished, feeling the braid with her fingers, her voice quivering almost unnoticeably. “Did you take interest into hair braiding, lately?”, turning around, amused.

His back was promptly turned on her, walking to the bookcase to put his book away. “Not particularly”.

[blupengu]

Y’all I’m in the middle of Le Salut and I am losing my goddamn mind so have a quick shitty meme

[bardnuts]

i spend a lot of time thinking about when exactly Astarion catches feelings For Real and I think the funniest answer to that question is literally the first time you have sex. He's got 200 years of experience in not catching feelings. "This is a good plan," he thinks. "A nice, simple plan. Make them fall for you, don't fall for them."

Then you ask him if he's ok or some shit during sex and it's DOA. Plan failed immediately upon its attempted execution. Defeated by the concept of a gentle lover. The rocket blows up on the launchpad