#so i don't want to burden them more

[tsugumichikaneshiro]

i really really want to move in with my wife i miss her... but i donttt have tha money to fly there.... 😓😓

[doverstar]

actually I love Tentoo and he is the Doctor and it was the only ending for Rose that worked and it is a huge gift to be able to have the man she loves grow old with her, they were always heading for that, y'all be quiet. I 100% understand the angst but it's okay, they're okay, good ending-

[coquelicoq]

incredibly moved whenever someone tells me that i'm an easy person to be around when they're going through some shit. there's nothing more sacred to me than sitting with someone through death and grief and loss, things that i can't fix or do anything about except be there and let them feel their feelings without having to pretend to be chipper or hopeful or cheeruppable. i can't pretend to feel what i don't feel, which makes me weird and awkward in so many interpersonal situations, but i think it's also what makes people feel comfortable sharing this stuff with me, because they know that i won't judge them and they don't have to perform for me. i feel so lucky when i can provide that for somebody. i wouldn't trade it for anything.

[isfjmel-phleg]

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[buppypuppy]

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[fantastic-mr-corvid]

i love it when shit happens in my life that dredges up old wounds and coincidentally im re-experiencing the media i intrinsically link it to cause then i get to remember exactly why i love it and find it so meaningful all over again. there's a fucking reason ill always say Berserk [& RGU] both came into my life at a perfect fucking time and holy shit they fucking resonated with me so hard and as much as life can suck ass and lovvves kicking me in the balls when ive just recovered from last time i a least get to remember how & why i love something so much.

[neverendingford]

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[robinsnest2111]

overwhelmed with the feeling of how much I want to leave this hellhole of a house for good

[paint-tastes-ok]

no one can convince me that hanahaki isn't an absolute banger of a fanfic trope. it's beautiful and symbolic and forces characters to either come to terms with their feelings or die ignoring them! a lovely setup for introspective character exploration with the added bonus of (often) horribly grotesque bloody flower petal imagery! as ✨ aesthetique ✨ as it is angsty!

[murobrown]

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[missshame]

I had the saddest weirdest realest dream about snorting coke btw

[skyteglad]

the latest aita is making me sad. the teeth one. because like... when i was a kid, i was told to have braces! and that i'd need an eventual surgery! and because i didn't want to, my parents didn't make me.

that surgery would've changed my life. i'm not fucking kidding. i'm pretty sure 75% of my physical disabilities stem from not getting that surgery. and by the time i was able to bring up trying to have corrective work again, i was two years from losing my insurance, and my parents procrastinated. now it seems like a pipe dream it'll ever happen.

i get being resentful of your parents forcing you to do things you don't want to do, but god damn, if mine had actually really pushed me into getting braces, my life would be so much different and so much better.

[joshnekuu]

Neku is happy to be back. There’s no uncertainty in that happiness- being back in the Realground, being Home, that’s all he’s wanted for the last three years. Now that he’s gotten it though, he’s not always sure what to do.

Things are different than he remembers them. That should go without saying, it has been three years after all. The shops he’d become so familiar with have mostly been replaced, new brands he doesn’t recognize, some names familiar but just different enough that it’s almost uncanny.

He has his friends though. Even if things aren’t quite the same as they were three years ago, Shiki is still Shiki, Rhyme and Beat are still Rhyme and Beat. And he has Rindo, Fret, Shoka, and Nagi now as well- more people who understand what he’s been through.

(he doesn’t need to talk to Him.)

None of them quite understand though. Not in the way that he sometimes wishes they would. The way he immediately feels guilty for thinking about, for wishing that kind of solitude and sorrow on them in any form. He’s glad they weren’t in Shinjuku with him, he’s glad they didn’t have to experience that.

But he doesn’t know how to talk about it with them. He can’t stand the guilt in Beat’s eyes when he mentions it. The subtle agony in Shiki’s gaze if he brings it up. They both say they’re fine talking about it of course, that he’s always free to lean on them, to share his feelings with them. They want to be there for him, to support him- and he wants to let them. He does. It just feels wrong to make them shoulder that burden.

Shiki and Beat don’t really talk like they used to, Neku has realized. Thinking back, he isn’t actually sure how much they ever talked back when he was still around. They were friends, but did they ever really have anything in common besides the Game? Did any of them have anything in common besides that…?

(they did. He was the one Neku related to the most. but he’s not ready to talk to Him.)

No. He won’t think like that. The Game might be the thread that connects them all, but their friendship is a choice, one they’ve all made; a commitment they choose to treasure and maintain.

Right?

It feels weird, seeing them as adults. They’re all still kids, really, but technically they’re grown up now. Shiki is running a business. Beat dropped out of school. He won’t say it, but Neku knows it was because he was looking for him- because he was too depressed to go about life as normal when Neku was missing, when he’d watched him get shot and disappear before his very eyes.

Neku can’t help but wish that Beat weren’t quite so loyal. He wishes he hadn’t spent the last three years of his life searching for someone he couldn’t hope to find. He doesn’t want to say that it was a waste, but he can’t help feeling it. Beat deserved better than to agonize over him all this time.

He’s glad that Shiki was able to move on somewhat. To get her life together and follow her dreams with Eri. He knows she never gave up on him, she never would- it’s who she is, and why he loves her. But her job keeps her busy, and as much as she tries to make time for him, he feels guilty keeping her. She and Eri are doing what they always wanted, and he doesn’t want to get in the way of that in any form.

(he knows how it feels to have an anchor, something tethering you to the past. he doesn’t want to be that for her. for any of them.)

He can’t talk to Rindo. Or maybe it’s more like he won’t. Because Rindo is free now, he’s safe- Neku will make sure of it, he won’t let the UG sink it’s claws into him again and drag him back like it did him. But Rindo is young, and he looks at him with eyes full of faith, like he’s some sort of hero. Neku won’t make him shoulder his trauma, won’t force him to commiserate his time in the Game for his own comfort.

The same goes for Fret, Shoka, Nagi. If they come to him to talk, of course he’ll be willing- be a good mentor, be a good friend, whatever they need him to be, whatever he didn’t have coming out of the Game. But he won’t start a conversation about the UG. He won’t make them relive those experiences.

(there’s only one person he doesn’t feel guilty talking to. only one person he feels deserves to see his anger, to bear the burden of his grief.)

(he isn’t ready to talk to Him, because he’s not ready to accept what it means that he Wants to.)

(he knows that He’s watching, always from a distance He thinks Neku won’t notice, but never quite far enough away. maybe it’s on purpose. that seems like something He would do.)

(or maybe Neku’s just thinking too much about everything.)

[the-rogue-mockingjay]

Lady Merethe of House Sofinoy

"Now, why would I get close enough to a dragon for it to rip me apart when I could simply bombard it with spells from a distance? I've never understood that."

The children of House Sofinoy are known for their somewhat unorthodox ways of thinking, and Merethe is no exception. The youngest of the viscountess's daughters, she has no wish to follow the path laid out for her by tradition. Along with her younger brother, Aurélien, she chose a different way to fight for her people- though her weapon of choice (thaumaturgy) is much more acceptable in the eyes of their peers than Aurélien's (machinistry).

Since the end of the Dragonsong War, she's spent much of her time journeying across Coerthas, working as a mercenary and adventurer of sorts, occasionally joined by Aurélien. The two have also been known to aid the Scions and the Warrior of Light when the situation calls for it, most notably during the war for Ala Mhigo and at the Ghimlyt Dark.

Bonus, the burden of being an older sibling:

Why is it that every time someone wishes to speak with Aurélien, Merethe is the one they send to track him down and pry him away from his work for five minutes? Fury help her, if she has to interrupt her research to find him one more godsdamned time-

Stephanivien can only offer his sympathy. Wasn't his turn to babysit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[madamescarlette]

[skrunksthatwunk]

"hey HEY what do you have in your mouth!!! sit SIT. SPIT IT OUT GIVE IT—" but instead of talking to a dog it's me about my parents using the word overstimulated as nothing but another way to make fun of our anxious traumatized dog for doing things they find inconvenient or unreasonable or illogical (and, by extension, everyone who uses the term for legitimate reasons). (WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM!!!!!!!!!! AND ALSO WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY HEAR IT BECAUSE I DON'T USE IT AROUND THEM On Purpose BECAUSE I KNOW THEY'D BE ANNOYING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)