#no because only three people are missing

[citrusreadstoa]

Reading The Hidden Oracle: Chapter 11 (SPOILERS)

Check your spam folder / The prophecies might be there I checked there already. They're not there :(

"Thanks. You're really tall. Don't you hit your head on light fixtures?" Great first impression, Meg. Also, what twelve year old calls them light fixtures?

"My two greatest loves were, of course, Daphne and Hyacinthus" I KNEW IT! I called it! It's Daphne! Also, "thirty-three mortal girlfriends and eleven mortal boyfriends" doesn't seem like a lot considering Apollo has three or more demigod children close in age right now and there's no indication that this is out of the ordinary. Sounds like he has flings every year or so, so I'd expect his number or significant annoyances to be in the hundreds. Must be his swiss cheese memory.

"Actually, Travis went off to college last autumn, which has mellowed Connor quite a bit." Aw, is he missing his brother? Separating Connor and Travis feels really weird, actually. It doesn't seem right.

"Gorgon-hair chandelier" Lmao a cute, slithery chandelier. Just what I like to see hanging over my head in any room.

"Chiron did a poor job hiding his disappointment. 'I see...'" This is hilarious to picture: the only two adults around who are supposed to be in charge and know what's going on just staring at each other like "You got this? You were supposed to got this!"

"With Python back in residence at his old lair, the spirit of the Oracle has been completely blocked." I knew it. He's gotta fight the Big Snake.

"Prophecies don't simply foretell the future. They shape it! They allow the future to happen." OH. That's news to me. So when a prophecy is told, that doesn't mean it was going to happen anyway? Instead, it's like laying down sidewalk tiles for the future to walk on and tread forward? That's a really cool and interesting concept. I love it.

Meg relates to garden metaphors? Yup, she's a Demeter kid. Another child of the eldest gods. That, or a related minor god/goddess.

Wtf, no communication is working? We haven't even gotten to the disappearances yet (other than Rachel) and it already sounds like the apocalypse is settling in. Even Iris? Were she and Hermes captured or incapacitated somehow? Is Apollo going to have to save his brother?

"Then the disappearances started." Gods above, this is starting to sound like a horror movie. "First it was Cecil Markowitz from the Hermes cabin." NO NOT CECIL. No one saw him go, no sign of wanting to leave... Someone pulled a Hera, or he was abducted by clowns, or he noclipped out of existence into the Backrooms, or... idk. And two other campers are missing, too. This has very suddenly become a detective mystery novel and I like it.

"When the giants started to wake, I drew up a very clear Twenty-Point Plan of Action" And still Zeus chose to blame Apollo for the war? Must've been a really bad plan of action.

"I'd seen that keen look in Chiron's eyes before . . . It was the look of a seasoned coach scouting new talent. I'd never dreamed the centaur would look at me that way . . . I felt so... so objectified." YEAH, HOW'S IT FEEL? Seriously, I love that the book is going into topics like this.

[arcanegifs]

[yellowocaballero]

So fucking glad to see someone talk about SSS Class revival hunter 😭 I lived it so much and I feel like no one ever mentions it against more popular titles like ORV or even The Lout of the counts family, so I'm so glad to come here and see your amazing takes :>

Thank you for the ask which lets me talk about SSSCRH (the version I read was titled 'Suicide Hunter', which tbh I like more - no beating around the bush).

It's hard to draw an accurate comparison since I'm going off just the webtoon for SSSCRH, while I'm going off both the webtoon and the webnovel for ORV. And I love ORV, ORV is my media blorbo right now, it hydraulic presses my brain, I am writing ORV fanfic - it's, like, funner to enjoy. But SSSRH is just better. In the vast majority of ways it is is better. It's better than the holy trinity by a wide margin. TW talk of suicide obviously.

I can't believe I'm saying this but you need a basic understanding of Buddhism in order to understand SSSCRH. It's not about Gongja's suicides - he doesn't suicide from depression or lack of self-esteem. SSSCRH is about suffering in the Buddhist sense - dukkha. I don't want to make this an essay, so I might reblog this with more information, but extremely shortly:

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. You've heard that Buddhists say 'life is suffering'. To put it one way that doesn't require defining a lot of words: the cause of suffering is experiencing the world as we percieve it instead of how it truly is. Suffering isn't just being miserable and in pain, and life isn't suffering because life sucks and global warming exists and people voted for Trump. Life is suffering because we can experience beautiful and joyful moments in this world, but we do not exist in the moment of that happiness or place our ego/'self' between us and that happiness. Living in that moment, accepting the moment as it is unconditionally, is freedom from suffering. The Buddha tries to free people from suffering through teaching Buddhism.

"What does this have to do with the webnovel and manwha about a guy murdering himself thousands of times" it has everything to do with it. Because SSSCRH is about suffering, and it is about using suffering as a tool in order to experience a world unfiltered by ego and break down the artificial boundaries between human beings. Suffering in SSSCRH is not a bad thing. Gongja has the unique capability to (reincarnate.) experience a person's suffering in unity with them, which dissolves the delusion of separation between people and puts us in touch with the reality of oneness.

The Murim arc was fucking insane because Gongja pulls a Big Bodhisattva Move and walks through the suffering of the world in order to achieve full understanding of the human experience. He takes all of the suffering of the world into himself and is liberated. You can tell it's Buddhist because death was not presented as a bad thing - death was an aspect of a happy ending for the Heavenly Demon lady, because she was finishing her life according to her own joy, and because her teachings were passed on she did not truly die.

But the purpose of embracing suffering is to discover the ability to fully embrace life, and that's where Heavenly Demon's teachings were incomplete - as the ghost dude said, Gongja hasn't even experienced his own full life and the infinite capability for his own happiness. You can only feel the depths of sadness when you've felt the depths of happiness. Sadness deserves its place in the world and it can strengthen you, but so does happiness.

Gongja is attention-seeking, envious, and unbelievably petty. When he drills down into his own desires and why he wants the things he wants, you see that he has a very strong sense of justice and right and wrong - he realizes he doesn't want to be famous, he wants to be acknowledged, but on an even deeper level he is desperate for love and to be loved. Everything he does is to experience love, and as such he learns to love others. His love for the Flamey Asshole was purely parasocial and ego-filled, with no concern for who he was as a human. Throughout the manwha, he grows to care for people as they truly are and pierce through any delusions or misleading outward appearances. He has released all attachment to life and death, and as such does not fear death, and as such has taken a step on the road towards becoming a Boddhisatva who frees others from the cycle of samsara, and as a result has learned sick sword techniques and is sooo good at beating people up.

I think the only other thing I want to mention here because otherwise this is an essay: in almost every time loop/regression story, only the final regression matters. In stories with dungeon monsters and NPCs, only the humans matter. The regressor exists in a space where there are no consequences for their actions, so they act terribly and do whatever because none of it matters. In Groundhog Day Bill Murray acts like an asshole because he can. That's not the case here. Everything Gongja does matters. The NPCs are fake, but Gongja never treats them as anything less than real people who deserve life. Once he understands a person's life he never treats them as unimportant. No loop is thrown away and no person or life is disregarded. His choices matter, the way he treats others matters, and Gongja never treats anybody as if they don't matter except for himself.

That was not short. There is a lot more. The female characters are so good and so rich. From a craft perspective it is excellently paced and has a wonderful sense of set-up/payoff and balances tone and maintains a lot of momentum, which is really hard in a time loop story. You have to do a few very specific things to write OP characters well and SSSCRH does it very well. There's more to say from a craft perspective and it's hard to judge accurately from a webtoon but it's good. I was so strangely struck the entire time about how sincere and genuine it was, how it said what it said with no trace of irony of confusion, and I think that's what stuck with me the most.

TL;DR: SSS Class Revival Hunter is good for a lot of very normal reasons, such as excellent pacing and set-up/pay off and characters, but it's also so sincerely and genuinely Buddhist that it blew my tits clean off.

[carlyraejepsans]

i was thinking about that ask i received the other day and how uncharacteristically upset the topic had made me when i usually just think "mh. gross!" and move on, and after mulling it over a while i realized it wasn't about the topic at all, it was the ask itself that freaked me out. i've mentioned sporadically before (for obvious reasons lol) that i used to be involved in fandom discourse when i was younger and that!! fucked me up quite a lot. between exacerbating my ocd and straight up getting cyber stalked (i almost feel guilty using that word, like i don't deserve it but. yeah that is 100% what happened to me), the topic is something I have very complex and personal opinions on but that i hate talking about in public because it still sets off my fight or flight response.

i know some people in the fandom are like "let me know if i ever rb someone who wrote/drew gross stuff" and that's entirely their choice and i respect it. but for the record, i am not one of these people. please, for the love of god, i am asking this genuinely do NOT come into my DMs about this, I don't want to know. assume I'm either living in blissful ignorance or my blacklist already covers me quite nicely & i wanna keep it that way. i vastly prefer the discomfort of stumbling into something unprepared and deciding what to do about it on my own, to the utter pit of dread i get whenever i open a message that starts with "hey just so you know-". i have blocked multiple people in the past over it. i WILL block more. be warned.

[note. this doesn't apply to people who have either hurt or behaved inappropriately with other members of the fandom, or spread bigotry and discrimination like racists and transphobes. please do let me know in those cases]

does this make sense? idk I'm kinda feverish you guys figure it out. I'm going to sleep.

[beeduoo]

originnssssss who remembers origins i Loved origins

Lowkey i ate with rhis actually no i didn't i ate wirh rhat ENDER EYE Why is it so rendered Hello

IGNORW RHEIR UGLY UGLY DESIGNS This was before they switched to their iconic Skins past e didn't know......

[napping-sapphic]

God i’m thinking about how easily and unknowingly strangers can grant you salvation like i found it in how my old classmate told me once that i was a kind person and it was the first time i’d ever believed it

in how a coworker once said that i always seem so happy and have a nice smile and i cried about it when i got home since i’d always been told i seem too serious or mean

in how someone once told me i was good at comforting them when i’d always thought i was bad at it

Just god they’re out there somewhere and i barely remember what they looked like and we’ll never cross paths again but they changed me so deeply, they’re out there but they’ll never know how often i revisit those memories and think of myself even just a little more kindly they’re out there and i don’t know them but they’re the most important people in the world to me somehow

[chloeseyeliner]

after that clip, get me on a plane to fictional sweden.

i'm about to give felice a very. tight. hug. with her consent of course

[raelyn-dreams]

Sometimes I feel like people will read one (1) story and base all their perceptions of a unit/character off of that which. Just doesn't really work imo, ESPECIALLY in the Reminisce stories.

Of course you won't like Shu if you only read Marionette. Of course you won't like Keito if you only read Meteor Impact. Of course you won't like Eichi if you only read Three Magicians (or literally any other reminisce story). Because they all play an antagonistic role.

You're seeing the absolute worst parts of them, their lowest points, when they're at their most desperate and ruthless. And that can be a good thing!!! I would not have the same understanding of any of these characters if I had NOT read those stories, and I'm grateful that I can fully know them better now! But I feel like sometimes, people run with it way too far, and refuse to acknowledge any change from them, even when all three of these examples have apologized and genuinely attempted to better themselves.

That's definitely not to say you have to read all the stories for a unit/character before forming any opinion on them (I freely admit that I could tell you almost nothing about Eden or current fine's development). However, be aware that your opinion may be influenced by certain stories, and that it is very likely you are missing some context for why a certain character acts the way they do.

Therefore, please stay open-minded, or at the very least, honest and polite!

[kimbapisnotsushi]

something about kageyama tobio being nineteen on the national team fresh out of high school and facing the whole world makes my heart ache.

it was everything he ever could have wanted. it was everything he ever did want, once. once kageyama tobio wanted to fly beyond the mountains he called home and soar into distant lands. once he wanted to climb to the top of the world until he was so high up that the sun and the moon and the stars were nothing but ants compared to him. once kageyama tobio wanted to do all these things alone — except he wouldn't be, not really, because he had someone who loved him and understood him and that was enough to shoulder a dream that blazed so bright it could burn him from the inside out with a single misstep.

and then kazuyo died and everything came crashing down like a satellite falling out of orbit, and the only thing tobio really wanted then was to heal from a heart full of broken glass.

at nineteen, he joins the national team. at nineteen, he plays at the olympics in brazil. at nineteen, kageyama tobio has everything he ever could have wanted, has everything he ever did want, once, but -

there are pieces of him missing, tobio thinks, a piece inside every single person who had taught him what it meant to love something so deeply it settles in your bones. there is a piece of him inside every single person who gave him a hand up out of the dark and pulled him onto steady ground. there are pieces of him that his new teammates will never know, will never understand, will never be able to put together and get the whole picture of who kageyama tobio is and why he seems so lonely when he is not alone, because kageyama tobio may be older and wiser and will not break so easily the way he did at the fragile age of fifteen, but there is NOTHING that can ease the ache of wanting the people he called home

[awarmshrine]

Other disabled people who can't work say it with me:

My life has value even if I'm not employed!

The things I can do still matter!

Managing a disability or health condition takes a lot of energy and labour!

I'm allowed to be tired even if I don't have a job!

I did not 'game the system' - my struggles are real!

Okay that's all, love to all my disabled community 💗

[dutybcrne]

Kaeya oftentimes wonders what it must have been like, living in Khaenri'ah. Reading the tales of Khaenri'ahn heroes Jean's shared with him, of things he remembered his father mentioning, helped him picture it all. As did knowledge the Akademiya has of Dahri ruins he managed to get his hands on one way or another years later, during his visit to Sumeru.

[thefrogdalorian]

Three years since The Believer aired and it feels like yesterday but also a lifetime ago? It was the episode that tipped the scales for me from "oh The Mandalorian is a cool show" to "WHO IS THIS MAN I NEED TO MAKE HIM MY ENTIRE PERSONALITY??" I was a bit late to the party anyway (Mando wasn't released until months later here) but I watched every episode as soon as they dropped. I really enjoyed them but it didn't quite transform into full-blown obsession until I watched Chapter 15.

The Believer just changed something within me... not just because finally seeing Din's face at a moment where he wasn't near to death meant I could finally appreciate how GOOD he looked (but yes, I do have eyes and they can appreciate Pedro Pascal when they see him).

It was more the fact that Din Djarin was prepared to sacrifice everything because of how deeply he loved Grogu. The character development from how he was at the beginning of the show, going from a slightly selfish solitary bounty hunter with absolute devotion to the Way, who didn't really care about anyone else, to willingly breaking his Creed for the love of a child... it's just a beautiful story. I absolutely love it when tough men actually have a heart of gold. Din is really such a caring person under all that armour. I don't know a better man, truly.

Anyway, happy three years since The Believer to all who celebrate! I don't know about anyone else, but it definitely feels as though Mando should be airing right now. I hope Season 4 airs later in the year, even if that means it's late 2025 and we have to wait a bit because having Season 3 release March-April just felt wrong somehow. It's a festive show!

Also, I miss Din so much it hurts. DIN PLEASE COME HOME THE KIDS MISS YOU!

[panspy]

hmmmmmm.................vent post under tags...... feel free to give advice or dont¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[jmrothwell]

"Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had." / Royal Purple

This day could not get any worse, and Julie really needed to stop thinking that particular sentiment. It was like every time she thought it the universe conspired to prove just how wrong she was. 

First she couldn’t get out of this stupid haunted forest night hike activity that someone thought was a good idea. Then she wasn’t allowed to go with Flynn, because the ever so brilliant activity lead also thought it’d be brilliant to completely randomize the groups. While she didn’t have Flynn’s misfortune of being stuck with Nick and Carrie during one of their ‘off’ periods Julie was still trapped with Kayla and Reggie. 

Kayla, who rarely ever spoke to her. Almost always close to Carrie, unsurprisingly since she was practically Carrie’s number one Dirty Candi girl.  And then Reggie, who Julie had even less interaction with. Only really knowing that he and the rest of his band were as close to getting dropped out of the music program as she was. Despite how new they were, though for entirely different reasons. 

The two of them seemed friendly enough. Though, it didn’t take long before she was feeling like an awkward third wheel with how quickly they got flirty. An analogy that got all sorts of confused and mixed up when Reggie turned his attention to Julie.

“So, Julie?” He spoke her name like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to say it, like even acknowledging her very presence would shatter her like the most fragile glass. She didn’t even have the time to feel insulted at the insinuation as he plowed on, practically shattering her apart anyway. “I think I’ve missed out on any of your performances, what do you play?”

 God maybe she was more fragile than glass. She avoided glancing towards Kayla, certain she’d be pulling some face or ready to make some snarky Carrie-like comment. Julie was not ready for this kind of attention and wished to get out of it. Only for the heavens above to open and release a sudden torrential rain pour on the three of them. 

Which is how Julie now found herself in a small dusty abandoned cabin in the woods that Kayla managed to spot. The one stroke gracious stroke of luck for the night. A fact Julie tried to remind herself as she tried her best to hold off the chills running through her veins.

“Don’t worry.” Kayla stuttered loudly enough for Reggie to hear as he explored the cabin to see if there were any blankets or firewood to help warm them. “I’m sure once they notice we’re gone they’ll send out some sort of search party.”

Sure, once they notice Kayla and Reggie were gone. The odds were slim of anyone but Flynn noticing Julie was gone. She kept her mouth shut as she tentatively sat on the creaky couch that vaguely smelled of mildew. 

“You make it sound like it’s going to rain like this all night.” Reggie laughed from the other room. 

“Who knows, maybe it could.” Kayla said, sitting on the couch beside Julie, her chilled damp arm brushing against Julie’s. “If nothing else it’d be safer to stay here. Unless either of you know how far we may have ventured from the trail, because I certainly don’t.”

Julie silently shook her head before realizing it may be too dark to be seen and quietly said her “no” out loud. 

“You got a point there.” Reggie said, his outline barely more than a silhouette as he returned to where Julie and Kayla were, sitting on Julie’s other side. She pulled her arms in tighter trying to shrink into herself when his wet flannel brushed against her. It was a bit of a surprise he was still bothering to wear it. 

“Anyway,” he continued on, leaning further into her space. “All I could find was this blanket, one the one bed this place seems to have. So unless either of you wanted to use the bed–”

Julie wrinkled her nose at that idea, given the state of the couch who knew what that mattress was like. 

“Ew. God no.” Kayla echoed, and Julie’s chest twisted uncomfortably despite how she knew Kayla was also only referencing the mattress.

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Reggie laughed again, weaker and more stuttering than before.

“He should probably get out of those wet clothes” Someone said, and Julie froze as the other two fell silent and she realized that someone was her. 

Reggie bumped her with his shoulder. “Is that a come on?”

“N-no.” Julie stammered out, teeth chattering from a mixture of her growing mortification and the cold, her blush doing little to warm her up. “You’re drenched, and clearly freezing. I-I’m j-just saying, you’ll g-get sick if you do-on’t get warm and dry.”

“You’re not much b-better yourself.” Kayla replied, a distinct lack of venom or malice. 

“Sounds like we’re all in a bad shape.” Reggie stuttered out again before mournfully adding, “Too bad I didn’t find any firewood.”

“Well maybe we should just get out of these wet clothes then.” 

“What?” Julie and Reggie both snapped at Kayla’s suggestion. 

“Think about it. We’re all soaked and freezing. We have one, questionably decent, dry blanket. Plus the body heat would probably help too. Besides, if we stay in our underwear it’s basically like we’re just in swimwear.”

While Kayla’s argument added a layer of mortification Julie hadn’t felt regarding swimwear in a long while, she couldn’t deny the logic behind it all. Neither could Reggie. 

None of it alleviated the awkwardness of stripping in front of each other. The three of them turned their back to each other as they did. Silently sitting back on the couch in their earlier arrangement and Julie tried to not think too hard about the state of the couch or blanket. Nor about how smooth Kayla’s legs against hers were, or about how surprisingly toned Reggie felt against her other side. Her mind instead decided to wonder what the other two were thinking about her. Not that it mattered much, right?

Reggie quickly broke through the growing silence. “Feels like we should have had dinner, or played like strip poker first or something.”

“What?” Kayla laughed incredulously, Julie’s own confused chuckle mixing in. 

The three of them soon found themselves falling into teasing conversation similar to the one from their earlier hike. Only now Julie felt less like an awkward third wheel and more like she had a surer place between the two of them. Though it probably helped she literally was between the two of them. 

And much like before it wasn’t long before Julie found herself on the receiving end of questions she was unprepared for.

“So, Julie, you never did answer my question before.” Reggie said, though now Julie could tell it was genuine curiosity that drove his inquiry.

Julie took a deep steadying breath, bracing herself. Not so much to answer Reggie, by this point she was almost numb to the words she needed to say, a mechanical practiced speech. Rather she braced for whatever pitying response she might get in return, the unpredictability of which she could never truly prepare for. 

Before she could say anything though, Kayla’s long nails brushed Julie's hair aside as she leaned closer, warm breath ghosting across the shell of her ear. “Hey, you don’t have to answer if you aren’t ready. I’m sure he would understand, or I could distract him. If you want.”

Julie grabbed ahold of Kayla’s hand, giving it a small squeeze. Hoping it came across as the thanks it was intended to be.

“You actually haven’t missed any of my performances.” Julie quietly said.

“Oh.” Reggie’s hushed tone matched hers. “But I thought–”

“You’re not wrong.” Julie cut him off not wanting the reminder and Kayla squeezed Julie's hand again. Maybe, maybe Kayla was right about this too. At least Julie hoped she was, because Julie definitely wasn’t ready to tackle this. Not tonight anyway. 

“However.” She said, trying to infuse as much flirting teasing as he and Kayla had been using all night. Even if she could tell she was doing an extremely poor job of it, her voice cracking despite her efforts. “That’s a part of my back story you have yet to unlock.”

Reggie did her the service of laughing at her poor attempt at a joke and allowing the conversation to move to new topics. She did him the service of pretending his ‘oh so random excuse’ for a hug not even a minute later was just that, ‘a random hug.’ One that Kayla also happened to get involved in.

The next morning Julie was almost certain the whole evening had been a bizarre fever dream until she realized she’d fallen asleep sitting up. Slowly she blinked her eyes open to find herself leaning against Reggie’s pale freckled shoulder, a heavy weight leaning against her own head and against her other side. Julie shifted, trying to not wake the other two but not sure hoe to remove herself from between them. 

“Morning.” Kayla whispered, her voice slightly raspy, and making no move to get off of Julie. “We must have accidentally drifted off.” 

Julie nearly squeaked in surprise to hear her voice, and definitely did when Reggie chuckled and whispered back. “Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had."

“Same.” Kayla giggled, both of the laughing vibrating against Julie’s chest. And though she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it with her voice caught behind her smile, Julie felt the same way too. 

[coquelicoq]

okay, i give up. i'm calling it, time of death 11:02pm. i hereby officially unsubscribe from the l0tr newsletter. it's funny because whenever anyone asks me if i'm the type of person who always finishes a book even when i hate it, i'm like, "yes, except this one time i gave up on the fellowship otr after the first 50 pages when i was like 10." here we are decades later and i'm doing it again. and the best part is, i did actually successfully read this book and the other two in the series at some point in those intervening decades. i tried to read this book three times and only succeeded once. 33% hit rate, compared to my rate of 100% for every other book i have ever seriously tried to read. i really want to get it but i just don't. i'm giving myself permission to move on with my life. i'm not ashamed! i will say it since everyone else is too chicken apparently: some people find this seemingly universally beloved book series very boring and i am among their number!

[vulpinesaint]

the sheer number of incredibly intricate worlds and characters that i have created with people who i am no longer friends with so that i can no longer talk about those characters or use those settings. i only got half the dog in the divorce do you know what i mean