#off to a swell start

[taming-bats]

Do yall like a/b/o? or just like. platonic nesting. how do we feel about omega dick grayson. how do we feel about the batboys and their dad actually feeling safe with each other. do yall like a/b/o batfam. but only the parts I like about it . is this anything

[constantvariations]

Okay so, I like that Professor Rumpel is both Rumpelstiltskin and the miller's daughter-turned-queen, and that her weapon invokes the spindlewheel from the tale, but the guessing of the name is so utterly lazy that I could chew glass

Spoilers for Before the Dawn btw

It literally comes out of nowhere. There is no buildup to the mystery of Professor Rumpel's name; she just randomly says at the start of the fight that if Fox, Neptune, or Yatsuhashi can guess her name that she'll let them go chase the Crown

It would have been so easy, too! Just have it be Rumpel's game whenever the students want something. Late to class and don't want extra homework as punishment? Guess her name and you're free. Got caught getting handsy in an inconvenient spot? Guess her name and she'll let you off with a warning. Hell, have some of the staff lean into it for comedy and comradery

This would naturally set up why Rumpel would offer an easy out to the fight and establish how steep a demand that is for our heroes. If no one's guessed her name in the many years she's been at Shade, what hope do they have of figuring it out in the next five minutes?

But, no. We get zero setup and the payoff doesn't even land! They guess her name and Rumpel attacks Neptune anyway. Right in front of the whole school, including Headmaster Theodore! In what world does that make sense? I get that she's desperate, but it feels contrived so Yastuhashi can do his thing and accidentally break the mind control

These books honestly read like a first draft of a story that really could've been something if more time and attention had been given. Rwby in a nutshell, eh?

[opens-up-4-nobody]

The way that the sun hits leaves and clouds. I feel like I could watch the colors change forever. If I could slow down for that long.

[the-yearning-astronaut]

.

[hikeyzz]

this is the first day i haven't woken up in absolutely unbearable pain 🥹 one week post-op just one more to go and hopefully i'll be fully recovered <3

[olivegardenfurryaccount]

we need a magical girl transformation in the style of a skin sloughing/tearing werewolf transformation

[appallinnballin]

Where do you most often get inspiration from?

this is a very broad question but a lot of the time I’m getting inspiration from other people (their art, memes they show me) but also my ADHD brain makes me think of scenarios involving characters and possible lore the most when I’m at work lolol. the latter is always very much out of nowhere too

[yallemagne]

Yeah if Jonathan died in November I see Mina ever having a child only if she were already pregnant with his, life defying the undeath creeping through her body those first months. I think she'd communally raise him with the others, but she'd not marry anyone else.

It just doesn't feel natural to me that she would marry anyone else. Even just Arthur and Jack marrying some new unnamed women just doesn't feel right. I just read a whole story of these characters repeatedly proving their undying love to each other and someone wants to tell me "eeh it's just as easy as finding a new man/woman".

It would put Mina at a disadvantage to rush into marrying a new man. He wouldn't be like Jonathan, he just couldn't be. Mina and Jonathan had a lifelong connection. They had an equal partnership, and any relationship after that would feel like marrying a stranger. All her property would go to a stranger. A new husband wouldn't understand anything. They wouldn't sleep in the same bed because he'd be put off by her nightmares, muttering with scorn that she would drain him in the night. He'd discourage her secretarial work in favour of her maternal duties. He'd discourage her friendships out of jealousy. He wouldn't hold her arm as they stroll down the street... Mina thinks of all the things Jonathan was, and she decides no man could compare.

Now, what of the Suitors? This man doesn't have to be a complete stranger, you may say. Maybe one of them makes the offer to her while she's in grief. You know, just providing support. Offering to manage her finances for her because they still dare to doubt her, just a little bit. Thinking a child would take her mind off Jonathan as if anything ever could.

She would refuse. Marriage is not a contract to Mina, it is a pledge that binds your souls together, and her other half is gone. She won't play wife for a lonely man grieving over another woman, she knows her worth.

The best-case scenario in terms of tropes is Mina having Jonathan's child. Then, the epilogue would carry out in relatively the same way as it did originally.

But what if she doesn't? Perhaps, to fulfill that maternal need, she takes care of orphans instead. Perhaps, she simply adopts or starts working at an orphanage. She tries to be a mother to each, and she's never content with her work, but she's made her mark on the world regardless. Arthur helps with funding even though she insists she has enough on her own. Jack is officially the establishment's doctor, but he spends much of his time weaving beautiful narratives about love and sacrifice-- Quincey knocks him over the head for scaring the kids, ever the responsible older brother to them all. Van Helsing loves the children, and his loud and frequent insistence of this fact brings stability to the orphans' lives that they wouldn't have otherwise.

Mina tells them all that she wishes she had grown up with such a band of wise men. The thought reminds her of the only man not there. Van Helsing tells her that he sees Jonathan's quiet dignity in every small face he's greeted with each time he visits and that it was Mina to put that look there. Mina cries because she sees it too.

[skxrbrand]

[todayisafridaynight]

so real of me to be driving in dead silence for half an hour until im suddenly hit with a wave of daigo lover syndrome and i have to ramble about him to myself for the next hour and then act like i didnt

[nyaskitten]

Hey guys wanna cry? Just listen to the track that plays when Zane gets his memories back in s11 I swear it'll do WONDERS for the inner suffering

[deerest-me]

god i fucking love music

[tvrningout-a]

CHAPTER SELECT       ➤ ???       ➤ ???       ➤ is it not enough i'm happy? 

i made the team! i get to play! i get to be their setter!

     how brightly she shined as she told her parents of her success, of how she worked hard for months to obtain that starting position, of the excitement she finally felt again. they were happy -- why wouldn’t they be? for years, makiko hadn’t touched an extracurricular, nor had she dedicated herself to anything worthwhile. they were relieved to see her smile, to hear her talk so animatedly about something.

     but makiko had been naïve. they always want more from her. 

     oh, won’t it be nice if you’re captain next year? her mother mentions it more than once, likes to talk about how yuuta was the basketball captain his senior year, and makiko tries to smile and move on. she doesn’t care if she becomes captain or not, doesn’t believe it’s something to entertain when she’s still building trust with her new teammates. she just wants her team to do well, to enjoy themselves and feel good about what they’re doing. what does it matter if she’s the one leading in the end?

     her father thinks her coach is too easy on her and her teammates, mistakes allowing the girls’ room to learn and trust each other as a lack of initiative. never mind they’ve won every game up until now -- that coach rubs him the wrong way, and maybe he’ll have a talk with her. makiko knows this comes from a place of love, that he only wants the best for her, but she can’t help the scowl and harsh protest that leaves her mouth. he scolds her for talking to him that way and tells her she won’t succeed if she doesn’t have someone to push her.

     makiko shuts up, apologizes, and clenches her fists so tightly that her palms sting. 

they push their own sense of ambition onto her, yet they don’t believe she can do this on her own? that she can’t be like her siblings like they’ve always wanted her to be unless someone holds her hand? what a fucking joke.

     her mother brings up becoming captain again one night, and makiko just cannot take it anymore.

     “ is it not enough i’m having fun? ”

     quiet but sharp, makiko’s words halt the conversation at the dinner table. she feels yuki’s stunned gaze, but she doesn’t look away from her plate. mrs. furukawa asks, “ what? ”

     " is it not enough i’m having fun? is it not enough i’m happy? ”

     “ makiko--- ” 

     “ no, tell me! is it more important that i’m successful, or more important that i’m happy? ”

     it comes pouring out, every ounce of resentment makiko has ever felt for being compared to her siblings, for being taught that unless she was the best, she wasn’t good enough. it’s reflected in her eyes as she glowers at her mother, shoulders tense and one hand clutching her chopsticks with a death grip.

     “ where is this coming from? ” her father has the nerve to look confused, and makiko scoffs.

     “ how many times have you compared me to yuki and yuuta now? a hundred times, a thousand? it isn’t a crime to lack ambition, dad! ”

     " we just want you to be successful, makiko, ” her mother interjects, sounding stern despite her glassy eyes. “ your siblings never needed us to push them much, but you... ”

     “ i don’t need you to push me. you pushing me has only ever made me feel inadequate, you know that? you put my siblings on this pedestal and expected me to match that -- of course i stopped trying! ”

     chest heaving, heart racing, head spinning --- when did she stand? she’s trembling, she realizes, and she can’t seem to get her breathing under control. yuki reaches out to her, but makiko recoils ( don’t touch me or i’ll break ) . it seems her parents are stunned into silence, though makiko doesn’t take the time to look at them. she doesn’t see the guilt as it sinks in what they’ve done to her. no, she has an overwhelming need to get away, far away, and rushes from the dining room and out the front door. she can’t be sure who it is screaming after her. her mind can’t focus on anything else but being anywhere but here.

     she’s done. this is the last time she runs away from a problem. in a few hours, makiko will come home, sit down, and talk to her parents. but she needs this right now, a small reprieve after finally finding her voice and exhausting it.

     as makiko collapses against a tree ( of course she finds herself at the community center, where it all began ) , she makes herself a promise: she won’t ever be that timid, shell of a girl again.

[elegyofthemoon]

wlw. rejuvenating

[h3avenish]

Old picture but I’m venting in the tags again, sorry

[c0rpseductor]

my mom wants me to ask her for stuff for christmas and honestly at this point im fairly tempted to just be like hey replace the battery on my phone. don't do anything else i just really need this thing fixed