#so it's kind of weird for me to see people fighting over characters

[solisaureus]

Seeing people compare Will and Nico to Achilles and Patroclus is always weird for me because like. First off, Clarisse and Silena are the obvious intentional parallel. Secondly, there is a very specific reason why Riordan actively chooses NOT to compare Will and Nico to Achilles and Patroclus- way too much bad blood between Apollo and Achilles. I feel like most people are only familiar with Achilles through TSOA and the Hades game, and as such often understate WHY Apollo killed him. And why likening him and Patroclus to Will and Nico is in bad taste.

(Hint: Achilles had been warned in advance by his mother that he would die at the hands of Apollo if he killed Apollo's son. He didn't listen and killed TWO of them: Tenes because he intervened when Achilles tried to rape his sister, and Troilus was a twelve year old who Achilles tried to rape, chased into a sanctuary of Apollo, and beheaded/mutilated him at the altar- it's widely regarded as the worst crime Achilles ever committed. So Apollo killed both Patroclus and Achilles, to avenge both of the deaths. I don't think Will is a fan of Achilles, guys.)

ive never been a fan of fans comparing solangelo to patroclus and achilles either, mostly because it just kind of smacks of....idk, reductionism? just the fact that both couples are greek and gay? beyond that their parallels are incredibly limited and usually kind of a reach. and yeah, skimming over the fact that silena and clarisse are the canon patrochilles parallel never sits right with me either.

disclaimer that i did compare will to patroclus in my fic Solace, as a way to illustrate the role of healers in a conflict, not because it has anything to do with his romance with achilles.

the bad blood between apollo and achilles is also a factor. while i do like the song of achilles as a piece of fiction, it does irk me that it's become defining to many young peoples' understanding of achilles and the iliad. I know it's because it's a lot more readable and accessible than classical texts or academic analyses, so i'm not trying to come off as elitist or condescending. but it does bother me that most young people have this one specific view of achilles as a figure (that he's a sensitive lover who met a tragic fate) when there are eons of history and propaganda surrounding him. I believe that in writing tsoa, Madeline Miller wanted to humanize Achilles by expanding on his love for Patroclus in the Iliad, which is a bit ironic considering that that's now become the dominant view of his story. But tsoa is just one interpretation of the myth of achilles, and it's become regarded as the true, canonical one in pop culture.

I think that what bothers me most is that the popular conception of achilles now is as a fictional character, when what he is is a mythical figure. the difference being that a fictional character is sourced from one canon story and is written by only a few people who determine their canonical traits. a mythical figure is sourced from a culture, and in this case the whole world, and cultural portrayals and interpretations of that figure evolve and change over time to reflect the values of the culture telling their story.

For example, achilles was vilified (and hector glorified) by the ancient romans, because achilles was a young soldier who refused to obey his commander and fight because it conflicted with his ideals. this is something that the romans detested and found dangerous (territory can only be conquered with loyal legions). similar discussions about achilles are had in modern militaristic societies like the united states.

I'm going off on a huge tangent here. I guess what I mean to say is that it bothers me too when solangelo fans make this comparison, because i think it is not fitting with will and nico's characters, and because i have a lot of complaints with the fandomization of mythology. And I know that's rich coming from a percy jackson fan, but there it is.

On the other hand, I recognize that the historical and academic texts written about greek myth and achilles specifically are not nearly as accessible as highly-readable fiction books like tsoa and percy jackson. so while this does personally irk me, I don't think the people who do it are stupid or wrong, because like...realistically, I can't expect the average 14 year old solangelo fan to know about the murder of troilus.

[justcallme-ange]

an anon asked me a similar question and i wanted to see your answer! if two of your dreams from any au switched places, how would they react? how would things go for them? - loyal

Oooh that's a good question! @simplepotatofarmer Well, if we're going with my two more developed AUs - CHF!Dream and AH!Dream would have one heck of a time adjusting. Quick premise, in the RivalsChildhoodfriendsAU the DSMP is a roleplay group that performs and livestreams similar to like Critical Role. All the characters are friends, and none of the damage is real.

AccidentalHuman AU is set in the world of the DSMP, timeline adjusted to where Dream was in the prison for a time, but Techno was in on the plan from the beginning and had the plans to bust him out. So no major damage to Dream's psyche happens here - he still has some issues but they're not as bad. He joins the Syndicate after being broken out and joins them on their missions.

------

So CHF!Dream would be hella confused when he drops into the world and the people who he's friends with, and was just talking to hours before not only don't respond to his questions but are actively try to kill him. Thankfully he's not too far from Techno's cabin, which the coordinates are the same in both worlds, and he's super happy to see some friendly familiar faces. That is until he see's Techno... XD I'd think after some explaining, they determine what happened and the poor members on the Syndicate add another weird phenomenon to their growing roster of things to fix. It's a bit of an adjustment, him hearing that this world plays out like his RP but it's real - kind of sends him into a depression for a bit. (He's also super sad to learn that the Exdee of this world is cold and manipulative). AH!Techno would be kind of weird/awkward around CHF!Dream for a bit - mostly because CHF!Dream acts super familiar with him. I think most of the group would be a little weirded out by CHF!Dream tbh, because he's like super normal? Like their Dream is not unfriendly, but he's a little cagey about certain things, and a little more battle-hardened. But this Dream? He's like an open book. I mean CHF!Dream is no slouch, he's still a champion fighter, but he doesn't flinch at certain names, or get upset when Tommy is mentioned. Actually he's super fond of Tommy and Wilbur, which weirds the hell out of AH!Techno for a bit. He's just... lighter. He has a good time in this world all considered, and kind of lifts everyone's spirits just being a little sunshine boy. On the flip side, AH!Dream would be a nightmare for everyone for a bit. He wakes up swinging, and it takes Exdee the better part of the day trying to calm him down. Only for him to go right back to fighting when CHF!Techno shows up. The Syndicate is called in and after AH!Dream sees some more familiar faces he kind of calms down. It's very clear for the people around him that this is not their Dream, and after a lengthy process they manage to get enough info on the situation to start to formulate a plan. (The fact he's lived their RP story and actually went through the things they pretended... kind of horrifies the group). First thing though, they send out a message to the rest of the DSMP that Dream would not be attending some scheduled RP streams due to... "extenuating" circumstances. (Tommy is def not allowed to visit for a while). So in the meantime, AH!Dream ends up staying with the Syndicate, for the other's safety mostly. This time it's his turn to be weirded out, because everyone is so friendly. Phil is super parental to him, and Niki and Ranboo are relaxed and don't seem haunted? Not to mention Exdee being around, and like... fretting over him? At some point he overhears Techno talking to Sapnap and George explaining that something's happened and they'd have to postpone some lore stuff, and wonders how in the world they're in contact. To say he is skeptical about the whole situation would be an understatement. The group makes it a point to actually get AH!Dream some therapy because some gut reactions he has to situations kind of scare them a bit. It takes him a while to believe that he's not actually in danger, that this is not an elaborate trap, and that the people around him are actually his friends. At some point he actually starts to envy CHF!Dream because his life is not as complicated as his.

How they switched and how they get home idk, they do return to their respective lives at some point, but yeah, they're not to dissimilar from each other so I don't think it would be catastrophic, its kind of like if an actor and the character they play were to switch places? (It would be totally different if it was c!Dream dropped in either world...)

[posletsvet]

I frequently think about how challenging it must be to write convincing antagonists. It's relatively easy to justify morally driven, righteous thinking and good-hearted actions (that is, if justification of something like this is at all needed). Pulling off solid reasoning behind uncompromising, dedicated malice is harder. I think that is because benevolence comes naturally to us -- that's what our evolution as social beings taught us to be beneficial. So more often than not villains come off as cartoonish, false and awkward with their cardboard-thin beliefs and exaggerated petty grudges. And that's why it's always exciting to see characters who are objectively horrible people but still exhibit intricately nuanced and dimensional personalities you can at some extent empathize with.

I guess that is also why I like Toji as an antagonist so much. (Yes, this is a Toji Fushiguro post,, Why do I feel like I should I be sorry?) He is essentially a case study of a deeply flawed, disrespectful and inexcusably violent character with a plethora of other gruesome traits (I mean, the anime adaptation isn't even remotely subtle about showing his nastiness) who's also... just another ordinary human being. He eats take-out food. He overspends inpulsively. He watches sport and gambles. He loves and misses his wife and settles down while he's with her. Toji has harmless basic needs like entertaining himself with a hobby in his free time and having someone to keep him company while doing so. He seems to seek simple human connection (like when he suggests that he and Shiu go eat out in some fancy place after receiving their reward). He gets genuinely amused with the job's destination which is Okinawa and expresses his confusion over the cult's representative's bigoted speech in a mundane, kind of goofy way. He's curious when something goes slightly off a pre-established course of action and asks Shiu about it. He gets nervous and tries to calm himself down by strategizing. He thinks of his family in his last moments.

I'm saying all this with no intention to condone Toji's terrible actions or make them seem more forgivable. I guess it just drives home a point for me that while he destroyed the destiny of entire Jujutsu society he was really just minding his own business by going through another job. Yes, he was in some way taking out his spite on the Jujutsu world by trampling on the 'blessed talents' of both Gojo and Geto, but there was never an emphasis put on it. Defeating two Special Grade sorcerers wasn't a prime event in his life (well, up untill he died as a consequence of it, I guess). Even if there were some strings attached to this job, Toji was in it first of all for the money.

He's mundane. The extent of his cruelty and filth is sickening. He's just like those people you could pass by in the street. He's so morally corrupt it's alienating. He's both unthinkably horrible and still just an ordinary person.

Toji is a walking representation of the duality of man, really, and I find it truly admirable how Gege tied all those conflicting traits into a coherent and convincing character.

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Card Meanings in the new, The Day I Picked Up Dazai art.

Ok so im currently still in shock that were getting new day I picked up dazai content so bare with me, but onece again Asagiri has included playing cards in his art so of course I have to break down what they mean.

Lets start with side A (the right side):

First we see a joker:

While Gogol is the obvious fit for the joker, the card also describes Dazai extremely well. He is almost always acting like the fool in any given situation, even in the mafia he loved to be as weird and funny as he could as well as tease and annoy the people around him, something jesters famously did.

In fact, his dynamic with Mori is very close to how a king and a jester used to work, where the jester was the only person who was allowed to openly mock the king and would usually heckle him. They also played a key part in psychological warfare, which we see Dazai specialises in.

I think the whole; wit, intelligence and unpredictability kind of speaks for itself.

Next card is the four of spades:

This one is also really fitting, it shows how after the day I picked up Dazai side A, Dazai settles into his little routine of going to bar lupin with Oda as well as how he finally has someone who he can trust and be comfortable around. Finally, it is a clear message of optimism, something Dazai never shows before he meets Oda.

Next the two of hearts:

This one is pretty obvious, it's Dazai and Oda spending time at bar lupin. It actually fits so well, there's not much I can say about it other then how it shows the love and care Dazai and Oda had for each other (platonically)

Now for Side B (prepare to cry)

The first card is the three of spades:

Whyyyyyyyyyy... why Asagiri. This one is also fairly obvious but it has multiple meanings. It most clearly represents Dazai suffering in side B as he has to run the mafia without odasaku and live in utter loneliness while destroying all the connections he never got to have for the sake of a friend he never got to meet.

“It was hard,” muttered the young man. “It was really hard fighting Mimic without you in the organization. I had no choice but to take over for Mori and make enemies of everyone around me to expand the business. Everything I did was for this world’s—”

It also represents the moment on the platform where he nearly tells Odasaku the truth and goes with him to bar lupin, the horrible decision to abandon everything for Odas future

The next card is... the ace of spades:

The ace of spade has many meanings, most of which involve change or transition, but by far its most famous meaning it death. I really don't think I have to explain this one, Beast Dazai having the card of death has a pretty clear meaning.

But the ace of spade does have a secondary meaning, and this one is a little more hopeful, as it shows Dazai passing the safety of this world onto Atsushi and Auktagawa.

Finally, (it's a bit hard to see) we have the ten of diamonds:

I want to focus mostly on the highlighted part because it's what really applies to BEAST Dazai, he lived his whole life to create a world where what matters most to him, that Oda gets to be happy and write his books, becomes real. This card doesn't apply to Dazai directly, more to the fact that he made succeeding in his mission his only priority and discarded everything else.

Bonus round Odasku card; the king of clubs

the only card thats seen on Oda's section and one that clearly represents Odasaku as a character.

"King of clubs represents a dark man, who is loyal and kind. He is a good businessman, shrewd with money and investments, but isn’t selfish. In fact, the King of clubs is a very devoted father, husband and citizen. In a broader sense, the King of clubs encompasses idealized qualities of a fatherly figure. This card is universally considered as a very good omen."

I feel like this sums Odasaku up very well, the devoted father and loyal friend parts are just him to a t.

(this is also the card I think best represents Fukuzawa)

Right, I think I got everything, if you disagree with this or find something I missed, please reblog or comment with whatever you want to add, or send me an ask. I love discussing, and hearing other people's views as long as they're respectful.

If you add something, please add it in the post not the tags, so I can reply to it (or in the tags if that makes you more comfortable)

[ryebread0605]

HAIIII can i request the first years with a yuu/reader who has lifeless eyes?

Ooo ok this’ll be fun! As someone who has rbf/lifeless eyes, i can kinda pull from experience here! I hope you like!

(Characters: Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, Sebek, Ortho)

tries to mess with you at first, but gets put off by the fact that you just don’t seem to react much 

Pouts about it and complains that you’re ’no fun’ 

When he sees you laugh for once but still have the lifeless type look in your eyes, he’s confused and weirded out at first 

Asks you about it and things start to click when you explain you’ve always kinda had that

Now refers to you as stone due to your ‘stone cold demeanor’

“Hey stone! Might want to smile a bit or the other students are gonna think you want to kill them or something! Wha- hey! Don��t look at me like you want to kill *me*!”

is nervous he did something to piss you off whenever you look at him 

Is the first one to ask what’s up with your face before quickly realizing how rude that is to say 

Is relieved when you laugh and explain that your eyes have always just kinda looked lifeless

He jokes that if looks could kill, you’d have murdered almost all the students at NRC

Still will ask daily if you’re ok out of habit

“Hey (y/n), you having a good day today? I know I ask every day but I can never tell with you! Shit- that came out wrong”

rbf vs rbf

Neither of you realize how intimidating you look to others until you see each other 

Instant bond commences over being seen as ‘rude’ by everyone 

He makes you feel seen and you two are seen as unapproachable despite both being super sweet once people get to know you 

I know Ruggie isn’t included here BUT you two become his unofficial bodyguards because I say so 

“I don’t get it (y/n), how do *we* get seen as intimidating but someone like *ruggie* is disregarded?!”

was ready to pick a fight with you the *second* he saw that RBF 

Backed down immediately when he realized you were actually sweet and just happened to have RBF 

Is completely shocked the first time he sees you laugh, he seriously didn’t think you were capable of that

Feels like he can be himself and drop the fake sweet accent around you 

“Honestly hangin out with ya is way better than being watched by tha others (y/n)!”

poor robo boy doesn’t understand why you look mean 

BUT he does not care about Idia telling him you could be mean and is determined to talk to you 

Quickly discovers how kind and caring you are and is thrilled to tell Idia (who straight up does not believe him) 

Is curious about how you can be happy but still look lifeless/bored

“Would you mind if I took notes on this (y/n)? I’ve never encountered something like this before”

oh he is big mad when he sees your RBF looking at Malleus 

Prepare for an hour long lecture on being rude towards Malleus

That is until Lilia cuts him off and explains that some people just.. look like that

Cue embarrassment

He’s not a huge fan of your RBF but slowly warms up to it overtime (even though he’ll never admit it) 

The biggest praise he’ll give you is that your lifeless/stoic nature would make you a good guard

“(Y/n), if you’re going to look so stoic at least put it to good use protecting master Malleus!”

[coralinnii]

❋ Crushing on a game character ❋ ↳ bonus: he kinda reminds you of your bf feat ⎸Leona ⭑ Azul ⭑ Jack ⭑ Kalim genre ⎸fluff, humour note ⎸no pronouns used with reader, established relationships, reader is kinda oblivious and scatterbrained. 

part one

Ugghh, the disgusted looks this man would give. Stop, I can’t handle the judgemental stares! 

Jokes aside, Leona’s not really going to care too much. It’s your life so you can like whatever you want so long as it doesn’t bother him. 

He may look like he isn’t listening to you as you gush about your ult fav, but he’s listening enough to get the gist of this fictional character that seems to capture your attention. 

“He sounds like a real jerk. You got some weird taste” 

“He’s actually a good guy, I swear!” 

“Well, for a good guy he sure acts like an as-“ 

Am I getting too meta on this?

Despite his supposed indifference, he pays enough attention to notice some similarities appearance-wise between him and your favorite character and of course he had to point it out at any given chance. 

“Can’t get your mind off of me, can ya?”

He can sleep through your gaming and your giggling well enough, and at the end of the day he’s the one that gets to have you in his arms as you fall asleep after a long gaming session.

But soon, you started buying some merch. At first, it was just some photo cards and keychains so it’s nothing too crazy. He almost can’t believe that people would actually spend time and money collecting those kinds of things. But when he realized that he could quell your anger a lot better now by handing you merch he made Ruggie get, he can’t complain about an easy out. 

Then the bigger stuff started coming in, and Leona starts to notice that this fictional bastard is taking more than just space in your phone. He doesn’t like sharing what’s his, fictional or not.

“You can’t be serious” 

Your lips curled into a pout as you glanced back at your new purchase that somehow offended Leona for some reason. “What? It looks cool, doesn’t it?” 

Leona doesn’t agree as he stood face to face with the monstrosity sitting on your desk.

A giant figurine of a certain character he’s starting to think he’s seeing way too much of.

It was a detailed piece with decor and props surrounding the character, showing off more of its 3D splendor. The smug expression on the figure, regardless if simply painted on, made Leona growled under his breath as it rubbed him the wrong way.

Your beastman boyfriend was waiting for you in his bedroom when the school day was done, expecting some quality time with his mate. Instead, he was practically left forgotten when you heard that a package was dropped off for you and you were excited to unbox your long-awaited splurge. Leona finally got your attention when he unceremoniously burst through your bedroom doors to find you rearranging your desk to fit your new figure.

“The damn thing is takin’ up your whole desk,” Leona sneered down at the piece of clay as though it offended his honor. “And it’s ugly as hell” 

“How dare you! He’s a masterpiece!” Leona felt a vein tense on his forehead. Did you really have to call it a he? “Besides, I still have space on my desk and just looking at him while I study relaxes me” 

As if to prove your point, you bent down to gaze at your new figure and a fond smile immediately found its place on your face. You playfully tapped the top of your character’s head, giddy as you took in the well-crafted design of the model. 

Leona on the other hand, can only feel a headache forming as he has to watch his lover go gaga over a cheap piece of clay (cheap to him, maybe!). It’s one thing to have your attention away from him when you're gaming, but he’s not gonna fight with a freaking toy for your loving looks outside of that. He’s the boyfriend here. 

You felt yourself pulled back by your collar, making you fall backwards unceremoniously onto your bed. You wanted to get up but Leona immediately joined you, trapping you as he laid his body atop of you, wrapping both his arms and his tail to keep you in his hold. He didn’t say anything but you could see his flattened ears and a sour expression across his face. 

“Do you really not like it?” You asked him, carefully caressing his head in hopes to ease his tense ears. Leona tried to ignore your question but one glance at your worried look just wouldn’t let him. 

“It’s fine… now stop talkin’ and just sleep already.” Quickly snuffing the conversation, Leona pulled you close to rest his head on you, being lulled by your heartbeat. Leona isn’t gonna tell you to stop if you really like this stuff, but his time with you is not negotiable. 

His first thought was how obsessi- I mean passionate you must be. 

Though, having been around Idia and even Jade long enough, Azul wouldn’t be that surprised as he assumed that this sort of infatuation with such a trivial thing is not something uncommon. Not something he would do but not surprised if you have something you like to such an extent. 

Azul would be curious and have many questions about your fixation. What’s enticing you so? How is it addicting for you? How can he possibly market on this- 

Being a doting partner, Azul would let you play your game in his office while he works on some paperwork. But Azul would secretly listen to you as you gush about the game and your favorite character. 

And I mean, ACTUALLY listen. He remembers your expressions as you ramble about that character’s favorite food or how good he looks in his new “skin” as you call it. He’s very attentive and he does find your goofy smiling very cute. 

But if this goes on, Azul might start to get worried. Is this character perhaps your ideal type all along? This suave and admittedly well-designed game character better suits your fancy than anything or anyone else. 

Azul would start comparing himself to this fictional character and wondered…is that who you wanted? 

You were starting to worry about your boyfriend so you made your way to his office. He seemed to be a lot busier lately and you noticed there were more papers on his desk than the usual contracts and bills. However, whenever you near him Azul was quick to hide certain things on his desk from your sight which you tried to convince yourself that something like that should be expected considering the confidential documents he may have as an owner of an establishment. But the way he forces a tight-lipped smile when he does so…it leads your mind to upsetting thoughts.

Working to dispel those thoughts, you knocked on his door but there was no response. That was strange since Jade assured you that the Housewarden was in his office and Azul would always respond back from beyond the door. 

Your worries deepened, you carefully opened the door just slightly in case Azul was actually preoccupied with a client. Thankfully, you saw no one on the guest seats and when you pushed the door further, you noticed your fair-haired boyfriend slouched in his seat pouring over some papers, mumbling to himself. 

“Azul?” 

Your voice startled the merman as he flinched out from his trance, his hands accidentally scattering his papers off his desk and close to your feet. 

“Ah no, wait!” Azul yelled in panic but you already took a good look at what was printed on the sheets of paper. 

It was your current favorite from the game you’ve been playing, with facts taken from the game lore as well as from fan theories. There were also pictures of his CGs with special dialogues catered to the players. 

Upon closer inspection, you soon noticed written memos and certain sections highlighted on these fact sheets, all in Azul’s intricate handwriting. 

Light-colored attire… prince-like aesthetic 

Skilled with swords…athletic appeal? 

Potential date sites? Food-sharing ideas….Hand-holding opportunities…

Littered all over the papers were scribbles as such which made you initially assume that it was for research purposes only. However, between these notes were details about you which made you rethink that assumption. 

You saw your personal interests, your food preferences, whether you would enjoy such date scenarios. Notes pondering if you would enjoy such a thing or if you find this attractive on Azul. 

Your boyfriend must have gone through so many websites, forums, and postings to find this much information without playing the game. Heck, you recognized some of these CGs from mini events that weren’t promoted as much as others. All this detailed research…you smiled at how adorably Azul-like of him. 

Azul eventually built his courage to break the awkward silence. “I can explain, my dear” 

You raised your brow but nodded. “Ok”

“I became intrigued by your fixation of this game and decided on checking on myself the appeals of this game” Azul pushed his glasses to cover his nervous countenance. “I must say, I am quite impressed with the details this company puts into their characters. Perhaps I can find some way to implement these elements into Mostro Lounge as a limited time event” 

You couldn't help but chuckle seeing Azul trying to compose himself, but the flushing of his pale skin betrays him. “I see. Well needless to say, I agree with your thoughts from what I can see, especially the date scenarios”

Your tease successfully flustered your Azul even more, but you want to fluster your cute lover further “While I do like the aesthetic of the handsome, princely type…” 

Azul watched you approach him at his desk, wary of the cheeky look on your face. Smiling, you proceeded to surprise him with a kiss on his face, teasingly close to his beauty mark. 

“…I like the very cute and clever merman better” 

How skilled you are to turn an octopus boiling red without fire.

Very confused. He understands that people have their own preferences and interests but he’s just…so, so confused. 

He supports you and your passions but you will have to explain the concepts like “simping” and “biases” to him. Very much a normie, but a supportive one. 

He makes sure that you balance your gaming life with your personal life, which means no late night gaming, no 3AM game check-ins, and he paces your grinding sessions with breaks. 

We don’t deserve him 

He would notice that your favorite character seems to be a beastman like him, but doesn’t connect the reason why you would be so infatuated with this silent wolf-like character in particular. 

Such a coincidence they look similar to each other, huh… 

He would chastise you if you get too absorbed into the game but he does respect your dedication and your gaming knowledge. 

If you offer, he wouldn’t mind trying out the game you love so much just so he can understand your interest better. 

“Ughh, I lost” 

You laughed as you watched your tall boyfriend groan, ruffling his hair in frustration. Jack decided to finally try out your new obsession and after a quick crash-course explanation from you, Jack tried his hand at the battle portion of the game. It ended unfortunately in his defeat as all his players died and the screen on your phone darkened. 

“You were really good for your first time, though” you tried to cheer him up. “Sometimes it just comes down to luck” 

You could tell however that Jack was still bummed about his loss, his tail slowly flicking around and his ears flattening on his head. 

“This is actually pretty tough” Jack grumbled under his breath, not realizing how complicated the game mechanics were. “I always thought you were amazing with how good you were at this game but wow…” 

“This man, complimenting me like it’s nothing…” 

Trying to cover your flustered expression, you crawled over to your boyfriend who was currently sitting down. Gently, you pushed his arms in order to climb onto his lap, your back resting against his chest which flinched upon your touch. You took back your phone from Jack’s hands. 

“Here, I’ll show you some stuff to boost your chances” you looked to your boyfriend, who went suspiciously quiet…quieter than usual. “Jack?” 

You could feel how Jack immediately stiffened at his name before he slightly yelled out his response “Right, got it!” 

Stifling your laugh, you made yourself comfortable as you continued with your gaming. Although, you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling when you felt a pair of muscular arms wrapping around your waist, and a fluffy tail resting on your legs.   

Another clueless but supportive partner. 

Kalim’s really glad you have something you really love and is happy to hear you talk for hours about anything and everything related to the game and your favorite game character. 

“He can do that? Wow!” “What? That’s such a sad story, poor guy!” 

He understands why you would like this character, seeing how jovial and sweet-natured your ult fav seem to be. 

“What a real nice guy, you must really like these types of guys, huh?”

“Yea…guess I do” 

He’ll go to conventions with you, even wait in long lines with you, and listen to fan theories while not understanding a single thing, all because seeing you so happy is worth it.

You will have to be the one with self-control because the moment Kalim finds out there’s merch out there, he’s buying them without hesitation. 

Even the less…subtle merchandise out there 

“Kalim…where did you get this?” 

“Do you like it? I saw this while searching for stuff you might like” 

You questioned what Kalim thought of you if he assumed that this would be something you like, because you’re faced with a large body pillow of your bias character laying on your bed, with your boyfriend joyously showing it off. The picture printed on the cover showcased your favorite character in a cute pose, which you were honestly grateful for because you wouldn’t know the best reaction to have if Kalim bought a less than school-friendly image. 

“It’s…wow” despite the insanity of the situation, you started to smile in amusing absurdity “I mean…I never thought I would have the chance to hold a body pillow, let alone have a cute looking one” 

Kalim, oblivious as ever, grinned as he assumed you were happy with his purchase “Right?! I heard from some people at the convention that pillows like these were really popular!” 

Ah, so that’s where he learned about this side of the fandom. Kalim is such an easy guy to talk with so he would occasionally start conversations with other convention attendees despite being a “normie”, so to speak. 

“I managed to get one commissioned with the fluffiest pillow I could get.” Grabbing the pillow, Kalim proudly held it out in front of you. “Here, feel it!” 

You did what your boyfriend asked, and your eyes widened at luxurious sensations under your fingertips. “Holy crap, this is so soft! And the picture quality is super good too” 

Any experience or expectations you had about body pillows is now blown out of the park as you can’t imagine anything ever beating the softness and quality of this body pillow. Heck, your regular pillows can’t be compared to the feeling of heaven you’re feeling. 

Kalim grinned at you, satisfaction and joy clear on his cute face. Gently, the tanned man pulled you onto your bed, making you lay onto the mattress with your boyfriend and your new body pillow. Wrapping his arms around you, you were now sleeping between the Housewarden and your printed-out ult bias. 

“See, even if I can’t be here, you still have something with you when you’re tired” Kalim’s ruby eyes shined with affection. “Though I don’t ever want to leave your side, I wanna make sure you’re never alone even if I can’t be with you”    

Internally screaming, you swore to protect this cinnamon roll.

[assumptionprime]

I need to rant about the Fallout show

Because this is the person I am. Full spoilers, so I’m putting it behind a Keep Reading:

I’m a huge sucker for Fallout (yes even 3&4). And I went into the Fallout show with some… trepidation. Amazon has been a mixed bag on adaptations, we could have been blessed with a Good Omens, or cursed by a Rings of Power. But early buzz and reviews seemed positive, so I slammed the whole thing in one night with my spouse (we were staying at my in-laws house and they have Prime. Time was a factor.)

And y’know? I was really enjoying it! The characters were fun, the plot was engaging enough, and the costumes and visual design were extremely on point. There were some minor lore quibbles to be had: Ghouls needing some kind of medicine to not go feral. Really, more Enclave holdouts? Timeline and date whoopsies. Wait are they in California? Where the hell is the NCR?

I made a face at Shady Sands being bombed and the NCR collapsing. But I wasn’t completely out of the story. Based on what I had seen so far, I thought it was building to a reveal that the Brotherhood had done it. That the more zealous turn they took in Fallout 4, which has clearly carried to how they are portrayed in the show, lead them to bombing the NCR. War never changes, as they say. Maximus even says when asked what happened to Shady Sands: “The same thing that always happens.” Yeah, it leans into Bethesda’s weird desire to keep the Fallout world in a state of perpetual wastelands full of raiders and no civilization, but it wasn’t so terrible that I couldn’t still enjoy the show.

But then.

BUT THEN.

Episode 8, and the reveal of Vault-Tec apparently being the ones who dropped the first bomb in the Great War.

I was surprised to hear that some fans have apparently been debating over who fired first? Some even asked Tim Cain about it?

That’s really odd to me because, in the games, there is already a pretty definitive answer to which side sparked the Great War:

Who fucking cares?

The world ended. What does it matter who shot first?

There is no China, no United States, no communists or capitalists left to fight about it. 

It's a powerful little bit of lore.

For all the posturing, all the promises from each nation that their way is the true way, all the nationalism, the militarism, and blind loyalty to flags over humanity, they both lost. Everyone lost. All that remains of the ideologies and nations that were so important to the people of 2077 is faint echoes over vast expanses of radioactive ash.

Who started the end?

No one knows. No one cares.

It only matters that their conflict was so bitter, so all-consuming, that one of them dropped their bombs, and the other dropped theirs in return.

The truest legacy of the old world is the devastation left by their final, most horrific war.

Can we do better?

Then the show says "Nah, Vault-Tec did it. It's not a commentary on human nature and the futility of self-destructive conflict, it was actually these guys, these mustache twirling villains huddled in a darkened room literally plotting to end the whole world so they can rule what's left."

And I can see the attempt to make this a critique of capitalism. I actually paused the show to praise a bit of writing when Coop is talking with Charlie before the war, when Charlie tells him that the “cattle ranchers are in charge” to illustrate how capitalism and corporations hold too much sway over the government, it felt very in line with how in New Vegas one of the recurring critiques of the NCR is that all the real power is in the hands of the “brahmin barons.” Nice parallel, spot on!

But “we’ll set off total thermonuclear war so we can rule the ashes and have a True Monopoly” isn’t capitalism. It’s just dumb “we’re the baddies” writing.

And then Shady Sands was also Vault-Tec?! Forget any meaning in the NCR falling to the same corruption and/or factional fighting that consumed the old world, they were literally just bombed by the evil shadow conspiracy that apparently also killed the old world. Hank gives this speech about factions fighting and the futility of it all while we see the Brotherhood fighting Moldaver’s NCR remnant, and like, no! You can’t say that when you’ve made it so neither the old world or the NCR fell to war with another faction! It was you! You and your band of cryogenic supervillains!

I don't care that they changed it. Timelines and dates and little retcons don’t bother me all that much. I care that they changed it to something so much worse.

[bigshotautos]

I really like your theory about Spamton basically haunting a mannequin after death. Have you ever touched upon the reaction from Jevil (or anyone, really) upon seeing the new Spamton? Especially considering Spamton isn't even aware he 'died'.

^ how i think jevil's first sight of Spamton would go. i love this ask. this is referring to some headcanons I made a while back, I'll link it here for the one post and the general ghost spamton theory is linked in that one as well. Going to elaborate on it more under the cut for those interested + more art.

In general I think that people from Spamton's past wouldn't really care if they notice at all, since he wasn't in the business of making close friends with anyone. With the Addisons, in my interpretation he had a "weird co-worker" relationship with them, and while Addisons in general treated each other like potential business competitors that they had to make-nice with, Spamton is especially easy to single out for being visibly and temperamentally different. His altered, current state is something they'd feel at least uncomfortable by, but many wouldn't have been too close with him to begin with for them to talk about it with him directly. Would get whispered about between each other for sure, like we saw with them talking about Spamton after the NEO fight. It moves him from the "disgraced guy I used to know" category to the "actually unpleasant to look at or think about" territory. This goes for Swatch, Queen, and Seam (less so), who seem to buy heavily into the Lightner and Darkner dynamic, with Spamton corrupting the Lightner's dream being a strong taboo against what it means to be a Darkner.

As for what Jevil thinks, Spamton during the NEO fight is both a beautiful and horrifying display. Jevil at this point hasn't seen him in years since his imprisonment, and in their time apart Jevil has grown to find novelty in the cage that everyone else besides him is in since he's created huge emotional distance between him and the reality he lives in. Seeing the fact that Spamton had corrupted an abandoned dream of a Lightner and was causing so much chaos to the established order of the world would be exhilarating, but at the same time seeing that Spamton had accomplished this and still had his strings visible (and changed to a marionette puppet with no symbolic agency), it'd be a painful confirmation of his worldview that even Spamton, who deep down he still cares for, could never have been free.

Jevil would think at first he'd just gone through some nebulous situation to change what he looks like, since ofc he himself has toy-like traits (arguable if that happened with Gasterfication or not), Seam is a plushie cat, and other Card Castle Darkners are based on toys, but feeling the lack of life combined with the symbolic body of Spamton would mean to him something bigger had went wrong. He wouldn't dare to bring it up in an empathetic way, stuck in his mindset that it doesn't matter, but it'd still hit a part of him he doesn't like to think still exists. It's something he gets over quickly, almost performatively going back to fucking with him and taking advantage of his fear for entertainment, but it didn't sit well at first.

To me, the fact Spamton "died" isn't really a huge deal, kind of like with the ghosts in Undertale where no one really cares they're just ghosts. They're just doing their thing. To me it'd be fine if neither of them find out what happened for certain, but it's something that adds Flavor to his character.

[nanpecan]

₊✩‧₊˚once more to see you˚₊✩‧₊ pt 3

{nanami x f!reader}

pt 1.  pt 2. pt 4.

˚₊✩‧₊summary: You’re a manager at Jujutsu Kaisen and you've now had two extremely intimate encounters with grade 1 sorcerer Nanami Kento. You're doing your best to go back to work like nothing happened. You're attending meetings, running a few errands, and having a very very close call with a curse and an ancient relic.

˚₊✩‧₊tags: nanami x fem!reader, slight angst, gore kinda (you're fighting a curse and it gets intense fast)

˚₊✩‧₊word count: 6.8k (do i even have to apologize at this point)

˚₊✩‧₊author’s note: this chapter is a little more centered around Y/N as a character. Nanami IS in it but i feel like he isn't the focus so i apologize. but ! i've attached pt. 4 as well because that does have nanami and a fun little hook up hehe. I won't be offended if a lot of y'all skip this to get to the next part. I know i would

˚₊✩‧₊this is the mitski song i had in mind for this chapter idk

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You shut the car door and put your seat belt on wordlessly. “You okay? I’ve never seen you so quiet after drinking.” Akari said, breaking you out of your daze. 

You looked at her and considered telling her everything. “Akari…” she looked at you with a questioning look. She smiled. 

“You know, Nanami was asking questions about you while you were up singing with Ijichi.” 

“What?” 

“It was little things. Like he kept asking for clarity on things whenever we brought you up. I don’t know if you even noticed.” 

“What kind of things?” 

“Well he was asking how long you’ve been here. He seemed to know that you’d joined the school when you were 16, during Ijichi’s third year. But he wanted to know how you did.” 

“What did you tell him?” you asked. 

“Eh, I said something about how your classmates were assholes. But that doesn’t matter. He also asked about your relationship status.” She glanced at you with a cheeky smile. You gave her a blank stare. “Well, not directly, but Shoko asked about my dating life and I told them how we were both hopeless, and I may have mentioned that date you went on where the American called you exotic and tried to grab your ass.” She laughed as she remembered. “He smiled when I mentioned you kicked his ass.” 

You smiled and she seemed happy that you were more relaxed. “I could just tell he was interested in you, and you know I’m good at reading people.” 

“You’re too flattering.” You said. “I don’t think he’s interested in me like that.” 

“You’d be surprised, maybe he feels connected with you after he saw your IBS crisis.” She laughed. “Too soon? I’m sorry.” 

You smiled and shook your head. You felt a burning in your chest. “You don’t think he was talking so much because he was into you? He didn’t talk to me at all.” 

Akari scoffed. “If he was into me I’d turn him down immediately.” She frowned. “If I didn’t know his age I would have thought he was in his late thirties, and I’m not into dudes that much older. You know I like them hot and stupid.” 

“That hasn’t worked out so well for you in the past, maybe it’s time to change it up.” 

Akari furrowed her brows. “Why are you pushing him on me, fight for your man, girl.” 

You slumped back into your seat. “I’m telling you he doesn’t like me like that.” 

She rolled her eyes. “And why are you so sure?” 

“Because he told me so.” You muttered. 

“What?” She suddenly got serious. 

“...Can you keep a secret?” 

“What happened? Y/N??” She looked over at you. “Hang on, we're almost at my place. I need to be all ears.” 

“You can’t tell anyone, and you can’t judge me.” 

“Wait! Don’t tell me anymore!” 

Akari quickly parked the car and ran out. She practically pushed you all the way into her apartment and onto her couch. She quickly poured you another drink before pouring one for herself. 

“Okay,” she handed you the cup. “I had a feeling something happened, you’ve been acting so weird.” 

“You wanna take a guess?” You said before taking a drink. 

She hesitated. “My gut was telling me that something happened with the curse he exorcised yesterday. And I thought that maybe it had gotten to you and you were overly flirty and confessed or something.” 

“We had sex.” 

She choked on her drink. “What!” 

You buried your head in your hands and groaned. “The curse injured him and infected him with lust. I was just standing outside the barrier. I was checking my phone when he came stumbling out into the car, and well…things escalated and…yeah.” 

Akari looked at you in shock. She put her drink down. “He didn’t report an injury. Was he in his right mind?” 

You understood what she was implying. “He wasn’t violent. The opposite actually. I was surprised too, he wouldn’t let me tend to his wound.” You took another drink. “It was great.” 

She still looked concerned. “But he told you he wasn’t into you.” 

You frowned. “We didn’t really talk much afterwards. I think he was more embarrassed or maybe he regretted it… Anyway I ran into him at the bakery that I like and we talked for a bit there.” You sighed as you remembered. “I confessed that I liked him and he said he wasn’t interested in a relationship with me, so I said we should forget everything that happened.” 

“I’m sorry.” Akari said. “What an asshole, I bet he said it just like that too. He’s so blunt. You didn’t deserve that.” She looked at you. “I’m sorry he showed up tonight. I can’t imagine how awkward that must have been for you. But I’m serious. He was asking little things about you. So maybe there’s hope?” She turned her head and scowled, “If it was me I wouldn’t want to see the bastard.” 

You took a deep breath, you didn’t want to tell her about the bathroom. Not that it was wrong, you just wanted time to process everything. You frowned. You had just ruined his chances with her, you were painting him out to be a villain. “He was very sweet though. I understand where he’s coming from. I mean, I don’t think he really had any control over his mood and I should have turned him down. I have regrets too. I think it’ll be easier to just forget. If he does want something he should be the one to approach me.” You lay back on the couch. “The shittier thing to do would have been not to acknowledge it at all. He’s a good guy, it’s just like you said. He’s blunt.” You smiled at Akari. “This is our secret, okay?” 

Akari nodded looking at you sympathetically. “Of course.” She came closer to you and hugged you. “Other than the mess, I’m glad he was nice to you. You pulled your long-time crush, that’s powerful girl.” 

You smiled and hugged her back silently. 

You both went to bed shortly after and you were left alone with your thoughts. 

The bathroom. He had said he didn’t want to talk, fucked you, and even wanted to take you home. This sort of contradicted your theory of him liking Akari, right? No, he just thinks you’re easy. You frowned. You should have let him speak before you cut him off…twice. You’d just been afraid that what he’d say would hurt your feelings. 

You tossed and turned thinking about him, remembering his touch, his lips. Despite it all he had been so gentle, so desperate to have you again. It hurt your feelings thinking about it. He had done all that but he didn’t really want you. You sighed, if he asked to have you again, would you do it?, you wondered. Yes, you decided, feeling hopeless. You felt very strongly about him and despite him not reciprocating your feelings, yours hadn’t diminished. You might have liked him more, or at least the idea of him more. You slowly dozed off. 

You were pretty quiet the next morning and Akari let you just exist. She drove you to work, talking about things here and there but not bringing him up. You were grateful for her. “You know I do love you.” 

Akari smiled as she turned off the ignition to the car. “I’ve always got your back.” 

You both rushed into the meeting room afraid of being late but when you got there, there were only two other managers including Ijichi, and Principle Yaga sitting silently with a frown on his face. 

You checked your watch. There were two minutes until the meeting was supposed to start. No other sorcerers were here. You sat down next to Akari and Ijichi. You looked at the empty chair beside you and for a moment thought about switching sides with Akari but you decided it was too much. You were thinking too much about it. He was not going to sit next to you, that would have been bold and stupid. 

Suddenly the door opened and Shoko walked in giving you and Akari a smile. Two more sorcerers came in with a minute to spare. You watched the clock strike 7 and the door opened again. You didn’t have to look up to know who it was, his aura gave him away. You heard him head in your direction and you whipped your head in surprise as you heard the chair next to you slide out and Nanami sit down. 

You clenched your jaw and felt Akari poke you from the other side. You looked at her.

 You okay? She asked with her eyes. You nodded and rolled your eyes with a smile. She smiled back. You didn’t turn to look at him. 

This wasn’t the first time he had sat next to you in a meeting. The first time you had been way more nervous. It was about a year and a half ago; after he had just rejoined Jujutsu society. You had already started crushing on him and he had asked you for a pen to jot down some small detail about a schedule change. The rest was history.

Your thoughts were interrupted when the doors burst open and you heard a familiar chuckle. “Okay, okay, we can start now. I’m here!” Gojo. He walked in cockily and sat down in the front row of seats. Yaga gave him a scrutinizing look before standing up, ready to start. 

“You’re just the man I wanted to see, I have a mission for you.” Yaga grumbled. Gojo yawned in response. “Good morning everyone, I’ll make this short.” He shuffled some papers. “An update on the Okkotsu case, the boy’s violence has escalated resulting in the death of three high school students on Thursday evening. Yesterday Kisagari and Harutomi were sent to investigate and were instructed to bring the boy back.” He clenched his jaw. “They did not check in last night and upon further investigation Harutomi was found dead this morning a little outside the school grounds.” 

The room went silent. You frowned, this was more serious than anticipated. Both of the sorcerers were grade two, it came as a shock that one of them was dead.

“Satoru, can I rely on you to pick up where they left off?” 

Gojo stretched his arms and leaned back on his chair. “Of course,” he responded. 

Yaga went over some other brief reminders before dismissing the meeting. You’d volunteered to deliver some items the school was exchanging with the Kanagawa Prefecture Cultural Museum. You stayed in your chair a little longer reading over the file Akari handed you. Nanami slowly got up from his chair and you could sense him staring at you. He probably wanted to talk. You owed him that much. You turned to look at him but before you could say anything Ijichi appeared next to him. 

“I’m ready to head out whenever you are.” He said to Nanami. 

Nanami turned to him and nodded. “Let’s go.” 

You looked at Nanami but he turned away and started heading towards the door. You frowned and turned back to the papers in front of you. 

“You okay?” Akari said. 

You looked at her and smiled. “Yeah, I think I’m over it. It was a one night stand situation, I’m overthinking it.” She didn’t look convinced but you shook your head. “Believe me I’m not angry or hurt. Life’s too short for that.” 

    -

You headed out to your school assigned car and sat down. You glanced at the back seat in the rear view mirror. You felt your cheeks get hot as you remembered what had happened, and smacked your hands to the sides of your face. You could try to talk to him later…maybe.

As you drove towards Naka you thought about what you might eat for lunch. Along with bringing the items to the museum and picking up the ones they were trading, you were to go around and check the shrines in the area. You’d had a mission around here a while ago and remembered a soba restaurant close to the museum. Since you had spent the night at Akari’s you didn’t have the sandwich you had planned to eat today. Oh well, you thought, at least I wasn't the one that paid for it. 

You noticed you were getting close and called ahead to the museum. “Good morning, this is Y/N with Jujutsu Tech. I'm about 30 minutes away.” 

“Oh perfect,” A woman answered. “Head towards the employee parking, we’ve told the guard to let you in. By the way, we came across a new artifact donated by the estate of one of our late patrons. It looks very old and was kept in a special box, would you be able to take it to get it assessed?” 

“Yes of course!” You were a little hesitant to pick up unregistered cursed objects but usually it was no big deal. Especially if it was kept in a special box. It would be fine. 

As you walked into the back of the museum, a shiver went up your spine and you got a terrible feeling in your gut. You took a deep breath and went in, a little on edge. You went to the room you’d been instructed to and waited. Some of the items you were expecting to pick up were already laid out. An old cursed katana in need of restoration and a few Edo period items. You put down the box you were carrying. You were exchanging these items for an ancient tea set from the Nara period that was in prime condition and a painting scroll from around the same time. 

“Sorry for running a little late.” You jumped as a voice came from behind you. You tensed as you turned, you hadn’t even felt the person’s presence. 

“Oh, no problem, I’m Y/N.” 

“Yes, yes, this is the item I spoke to you on the phone about.” 

The lady put down an intricately decorated green box about 6 inches long and 4 wide. “We just got it in this morning. Our staff decided to open it to see what was inside, but only found one small object wrapped in a sort of paper wrap with writing on it. We couldn’t decipher the language, but right after we opened it the lights in the museum went out so we closed it.” She laughed nervously. “None of us are very superstitious, but we did get spooked.” 

She picked up the box to hand it to you. You grabbed it but felt that she had a tight grip on it. You pulled a little harder to take it from her but she just stared at the box. “Ma’am?” You pulled again but her grip hadn’t faltered. 

“I just…would like to see it one more time.” 

“I don’t think that’s a good-“ she yanked the box back and quickly lifted the locking notch to open the box. She stared inside. 

You went around her to look inside as well and gasped. You knew what this was. You had only seen one brought to the school when you were a student. It was one of Ryomen Sukuna’s fingers. You quickly shut the box and yanked it out of her hands. 

“I’ll take it from here.” She seemed to snap out of her daze and nodded. 

“Yes- uh. Let me find a box to put these loose items in so you can carry them easier. Excuse me.” The lady left the room and you stared at the box in shock. You needed to get this out of here.  

You quickly pulled your phone out and called the school. 

“Hello, this is Y/N. I’m picking up items from the Kanagawa Cultural Museum and they have given me one of Ryomen Sukuna’s fingers.” 

The person on the other end let out a small noise. “Is it bound?” 

“It’s wrapped in a talisman and contained in an emerald box.” 

“Okay... We can send the closest available sorcerers to assist you in ensuring it gets returned to the school without interruptions. Do not worry about your other tasks, the finger is the new priority.” You looked back at the box nervously. “Do you know if they unraveled the talisman?” 

“They opened the box and examined the finger but quickly closed it back up. The finger appears to still be partially wrapped in the box.” 

“We should assume they unwrapped the finger, even if it was only for a little bit, so there might be curses coming that way, and the talisman is probably weakened if not all together useless.” The guy sighed on the phone. “You said this was Y/N correct.” 

“Yes.” 

He was silent. “Take the finger and run, you won’t be able to handle whatever curses are coming your way.” 

You were hurt by his comments but knew it was true. You thanked him and hung up. You looked at the door. The lady was taking a while. You quickly began to unload your box and started loading the other contents into it. The sword was going to stick out too much so you quickly stuck it to your hip using your belt. You placed the finger in last and picked up the box. You went back into the hallway and once again felt the energy sour. 

You headed towards the exit when you noticed a shoe in the hallway. You clenched your teeth. It was a woman’s high heel, the same kind the lady had been wearing earlier. Your instincts told you to run to the car but then a smell hit your nose. Blood. Blood and the sickeningly bitter scent of a curse. 

Run. Your body was telling you to run. You were close to the exit, the car was parked right outside the door. You started to move your legs and turned towards the exit. You had been told the nearest sorcerers were heading your way. Someone else would be here to help. You would just get in the way and end up dying. You couldn’t fight, not well anyway. You didn’t have any weapons, you needed to leave, you needed to - you stopped in your tracks as you heard a small noise. You listened intently. 

“Help!” It was a whisper. “Please.” An agonizing voice coming from behind you. You turned trying to find the voice. “Help.” It was coming from the hallway to your left. You hesitated. You blinked and took a deep breath. You clutched the boxed items closer to yourself and your hand went to the katana on your hip. It was old and rusted but it was something, you weren’t completely unarmed. You quickly went toward the noise and peeked around the corner. 

You stood there shocked. The lady was sitting on the floor, her back to the wall, her face twisted in pain. She had a deep purple bruise on her right ankle and her left foot was gone. It looked like it had been hastily bit off. Where she was bleeding there was a small yellow curse lapping up the blood. 

“Help! Help me! Help.” She started yelling as she saw you approach. You ran over to her and shushed her. The little yellow curse didn’t even notice you, it was too busy drinking the blood, but it was growing in size. You put the box down next to her and looked at her wound. It was big, an injury like this required immediate attention. Your mind raced as you thought about what to do. You could try to heal it, try to use your RCT. However you had no medical knowledge whatsoever so the chances of you messing it up were greater than you fixing it. But you had to do something. Even if you didn’t understand, stopping the bleeding or scabbing it over would help tremendously. 

I don’t have enough CE for this, you thought bitterly. It would take a lot. You looked at the little creature in front of you and something clicked in your brain. You couldn’t explain it but you just knew what to do. You grabbed the creature by the base of its neck. It didn’t even flinch, it was too preoccupied consuming the trickling blood. That was until it started shrinking, its fingers curling, the tips of its ears wilting and then it started thrashing in your hands. 

You were absorbing its cursed energy. Your hand burned as you felt the rotten energy enter you. Your veins ached and you winced, feeling like you were going to be sick. The input was foul, you felt like you needed to expel it, quickly. You placed your other hand on the bloody stump and tried to focus on your reverse cursed technique. You laughed when you noticed something was happening only to flinch as the creature started to kick and scratch at you. You slammed it onto the floor trying to subdue it. It became more and more withered as you became accustomed to the feeling of absorbing its energy. The wound was looking much better. Almost. 

The yellow creature let out one final shriek before it completely deflated. The lady’s ankle was now a hardened scab. You knew it hadn’t healed completely but it wasn’t going to get any worse. You looked up and saw that she was staring horrified at your hand wrapped around the stump. In your other hand, the curse was now a grey lump of flesh. You clenched your fist and it disintegrated into ash. 

You looked up at the lady and let go of her leg. “We need to get outside.” Once outside you could make a veil and prevent whatever was inside from getting out. You had quickly deduced that the small yellow curse was not the one that had done the damage. There was something bigger and stronger and it was looking for the finger. 

You grabbed the green box with the finger, tucking it under your arm as you helped the lady up, letting her lean on you as you started for the door. You quickly hobbled there together. You were going to make it. You were two feet from the door. One foot. Your hand reached out to push when you suddenly felt the wind get knocked out of you. Your mouth flew open and released a stream of blood. The world went black for a second and you felt yourself falling. You came to, right before you hit the ground and regained your balance. You turned around quickly but your body was overcome with pain. Your hand went to your abdomen, you had broken some ribs. But what had hit you? You looked over at the lady and saw she was unconscious. “Shit.” You slid her off your shoulder and looked around for a curse. Nothing. You quickly checked her pulse. She was breathing. You sighed and stood up looking around. 

The box! You looked around the floor for it. You had dropped it when you had been hit. It was nowhere to be found. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” You realized now the curse had probably slammed into you while trying to get the box. You had to get it back and fast. You stopped. No this isn’t right. I need to get this lady to safety and set a veil. I need to wait for the closest sorcerer to arrive, I can’t fight. You heard screaming from the hallway again. You clenched your jaw. You were terrified. 

You looked down at the lady and quickly picked her up. You were right by the door. You pushed open the door wheezing a little and trying your best to ignore the pain as she leaned into your broken ribs. You set her down on the steps outside and turned to the building. The curtain! you needed to put one up. You lifted a hand and muttered your phrase. 

You opened your phone and dialed the school. The same person picked up. “The situation has escalated. I was attacked and the curse got a hold of the finger. So far there's only been one confirmed injury, but I think many others are in danger. I’ve placed a veil for now,” you said.

“Stay put, help is almost there.” You looked back at the building and frowned. You hung up. You heard another yell and your stomach dropped. You felt yourself tearing up. There had to be something you could do. You needed to do something, anything, you couldn’t just stand there while everyone inside was in danger. It wasn’t fair. 

You felt your body move and before you realized, you found yourself stepping into the veil. You quickly went to the door and stepped back into the building. You saw more of the little yellow creatures climbing up and down the walls. You counted seven. They were all moving towards the same place. Looking along the wall, you spotted what you were looking for and quickly hobbled over to push the fire alarm. 

The alarm rang in your ears. You coughed and winced as more blood came out of your mouth. Your chest ached with every step, every breath, but you kept going. Someone was yelling for help. Without thinking you snatched one of the little yellow curses and started absorbing it. You were careful not to heal your own wounds. You’d been able to help the lady, but with little understanding of internal anatomy, something told you you’d do more damage than good. 

You turned the corner and found a man in shock staring at where his hand once was. You rushed over and grabbed it with your free hand exerting the cursed energy into it. The little fiend shriveled in your hand again as the wound scabbed over.

As the alarm cycled you hoped people in the museum were evacuating. Since you were in the employee backrooms you couldn’t tell. The man stared at his hand traumatized and you left him there to try to find the creature. The closer you felt you got, the more of the little yellow demons swarmed the walls, like vultures waiting for prey. You pushed past twenty trying to get through a door frame and you were surprised to see that there were at least a hundred in the next room. The curse you were looking for was there too. 

It was a large pudgy creature, around 6 feet tall with frog-like features. It had grubby hands and ornate green stripes along its back. It was muttering something, you couldn’t make out the phrase. It had a disembodied human hand in its mouth and it was sucking on the exposed wrist draining it of blood. Every time it slurped, the fingers of the hand would contract open and closed. It made your stomach uneasy. 

The curse didn’t notice you coming in, it was too preoccupied trying to open the emerald box. You noted the curse had it backwards and was trying to pry it open on the side with the hinges. You didn’t know how much longer you had. You debated what to do. In this room the curse was isolated, it couldn’t access any more victims and hopefully a majority, if not all, of the people in the museum had evacuated. There was a sorcerer on the way, you could leave it here or wait outside of the door to direct them towards the curse. 

But the finger….You could get it while it was distracted, or at least try to. You had the katana and even though it was old, it was still a weapon. As you pondered what to do you noticed the room had gone silent. The creature was still mumbling and trying to get the box open but the other small yellow creatures had gone quiet. You put your hand on the hilt of the katana once again uneasy. You made your decision. Even if you were useless you could buy some time. You slowly crept closer and closer to the curse. You took a quiet breath before pulling out the sword and swinging it at the monster's neck. 

The sword hit the curse’s flesh with a loud thunk. It was blunt. Practically useless. The creature stopped struggling with the box and its head quickly turned to look at you. It had two sets of eyes, although they all seemed to be looking in different directions. Suddenly the curse made a dive at you, mouth open ready to bite. 

You attempted to dodge to the right but you were too slow to completely move out of the way. You felt a cool sensation on your arm and you turned to see your left arm in a sorry state. The skin on your forearm and elbow was gone. Blood poured out and you could only stare in horror. The pain hit you all at once and you barely managed to turn away from your arm, trying to locate where the curse was now. It was staring at you seemingly confused as to how it had missed you, the sliver of your flesh hanging down out of its mouth like a tongue. 

It looked like it was going to charge at you again and as you started backing away you realized your back was to the wall. It realized this too and moved forward at a ridiculous speed. All you managed to do was bring up the old katana. You shut your eyes embracing yourself for the fatal blow but you only felt the curses’ plump body falling into you, wriggling around. The sword was in your hand but your wrists were twisted awkwardly around the handle and you realized it had become stuck in the creature's mouth. You let go and pushed against the creature with your leg. 

In its shocked state, it stumbled backwards and you were able to see what had happened. It had opened its mouth wide and lodged the katana between the top of his mouth and his jaw. He couldn’t shut it. It reached desperately to try to pry it out but its stubby arms couldn’t reach inside its own mouth. 

You quickly took advantage of its distraction to try to locate the green box. You spotted it on the ground in the middle of the room.You looked back at the creature making sure it was still distracted and started sneaking away. 

It suddenly let out a loud screech and its body started contorting. Its head grew bigger and smaller, arms longer and shorter. It seemed to be trying to molt out of its body to get rid of the sword. But no matter how much it twisted and yelled the sword wouldn’t come out. You wondered for a second, what kind of curse was imbued on the sword. 

You took another step away and suddenly the creature’s attention snapped back to you. You tried to make a run for it but it hurtled its way in front of you and slammed you back into the wall. 

You yelled out weakly, more blood spilling from your mouth and your left arm sending a shooting pain throughout your body as your exposed muscle stained the wall with your blood. The curse moved its hands to your neck and lifted you up, choking you against the wall. You desperately tried to inhale and tried not to panic, but the combination of the pain and lack of oxygen wasn’t letting you think clearly. You kicked desperately at the curse but it wasn’t budging. You put your hands up to its wrists and tried to budge them to no avail.   

As you started to see dots, your kicks got weaker. You felt its grip tighten and your hands fell weakly onto its arms. You began trying to take the energy out. Your body felt almost as if it was on autopilot. No air and feeling defeated, you started to allow the cursed energy you were absorbing into you entirely. You felt a burning sensation on your arm and coming from inside your chest. Your entire body felt hot as you felt things fixing themselves. You also noticed the grip around your neck had faltered some as you took a desperate and choppy gulp of air. That little flow of oxygen allowed you to think a little more clearly as you kept absorbing the CE. 

You didn’t want to finish healing yourself but you needed to put the energy somewhere. You looked at the curse in front of you. Its face was right in front of your chest. You reached down with your right hand and grabbed the blade of the katana. You began transferring the energy into it. You felt the sword get hot and push back, almost as if it was refusing the new input of CE, but after gripping the steel tighter you felt the sword lose its dullness. 

The rust started to fall away and the metallic sheen of the blade began to glow. The edge of the sword was becoming very sharp. You wanted to let go but found that your hand was bound to it, the transfer requiring more and more CE and blood and pain. You felt the blade cut into your palm and you ground your teeth. You needed to stop. You ripped your hand away from the blade and removed your hand from the curse’s arm. You quickly put your hands into the curse’s mouth and grabbed its teeth and lip. You pulled its upper jaw down hard for it to close its mouth and watched as the newly sharpened sword point pierce through the creature’s palate and skewered out through the top of its head. As the tip of the blade suddenly appeared through its skull, the grip around your neck loosened and the curse dropped flat on the ground, twitching. 

You could only stare in shock at what had just happened. 

Suddenly a rush of the small yellow curses began moving forward to consume the liquids oozing out of the curse. You felt your stomach churn as you watched them lap everything up. You turned away from the sight and looked for the box. You took a staggering step towards the item, still laying in the middle of the room, and let out a yelp. Your entire body felt heavy and tired. You felt sick. You still had an excess of CE and your body couldn’t handle it. You collapsed to your knees as you neared the box. You placed your palms on the floor and tried to expel the energy from your body. The floor beneath you turned black and cracked. You poured it all out and felt slight relief, but still felt sore and achy. You looked back up at the box and reached for it. You took it in your hands and sat back. You took a shaky breath and laughed. That could have been bad. 

You jumped as you heard the door open and quickly turned towards it. You felt a slight pang of relief as you realized it was a pair of sorcerers. That relief turned to anger as you realized it was two students. 

Inumaki and Maki. They stared at you curiously and looked around trying to make sense of what had happened. You looked around too. The place was crawling with little yellow curses, a horde of them concentrated on the still twitching body of the large curse with a katana stuck through his skull. There was a human hand just laying limp to your right and you were sitting in the middle of the room. You bet you were a sight to see. Your suit was torn in various places, soaked in blood from wounds that had healed. 

“Are you okay?” Maki asked. 

“The curse-“ you stopped and put a hand up to your throat. It was burning and speaking felt difficult. Your voice had a heavy rasp to it due to your windpipe almost being crushed. You tried to clear your throat but it sent a sharp pain down it. “The curse has been defeated, I secured the finger.” You finally said fighting against the fire in your throat. You held up the box. “Are you two the only ones here?” 

“Daisuke is outside, he drove us here.” Another manager. 

“Tuna.” 

“We’ll take care of these creatures, Daisuke is waiting with another secure container to put the finger in.” 

You sighed and nodded. “Any casualties?” 

“None, almost everyone was evacuated. Police and firemen have arrived on scene. The veil you placed is very good.” Maki said. 

You slowly got to your feet and tucked the box under your right arm. You had healed your previously flayed left arm but it still felt sore. You put your hand on your left elbow to try to comfort it. “Be careful. He’s down but he’s got razor sharp teeth. Also we need that sword. If you could get it for me that would be great,” you said with a smile. You could tell from their faces that it wasn’t very convincing.

You limped out of the room and collapsed against the wall once you were out. They sent students? If the curse had gotten a hold of the finger the students would have been in serious danger. You would have surely been killed, and they wouldn’t have known what they were walking into. You were going to say something when you got back. You got back to your feet and started heading towards the exit. 

You spotted Daisuke talking with some policemen as you emerged from the veil. He looked at you shocked to see the state you were in and quickly pulled out a wooden box to put the cursed item in. You dropped the box into it and he quickly shut it, muttering some kind of extra enchantment on it. 

You leaned against the car exhausted and still feeling off. “Are you okay?” 

You looked at him and nodded. “Yes,” you hesitated. “But I think I’m going to need you to give me a ride back to the school.” 

The students finished up quickly and you sat in the passenger seat sleeping the whole way back. You felt uneasy still. Your bones creaking and your entire body sore. 

Once inside the school you insisted on taking the box and delivering it to the main office. You wanted to talk to the staff member you had talked with over the phone. 

You swung open the door to his office and stormed up to his desk. You dropped the box onto the infront of him and stared the worker down. “Here it is. One of the legendary Ryomei Sukuna fingers, one of the most powerful relics in the world, previously unwrapped and unbound less than an hour ago.” 

The guy looked at the box and then up at you giving you a criticizing glare. “You seem upset.”

“Why the fuck would you send two students instead of a high ranked sorcerer?”

The guy looked away from you and smirked. “They were the closest available and besides, if you were able to handle it why would I waste someone’s time?” He gave you a snarky smile. 

Your blood boiled. He had a point but you had gotten so lucky. “They could have gotten hurt if the curse had been able to get the finger, you didn’t know the whole situation of what was going on.” 

He shrugged. “It looks like I made the right decision. If you, out of anyone, was able to defeat the curse, there was no real danger. The curse even cauterized the wounds. None of the victims were in grave danger.” 

“What?” 

“Two of the victims were found with missing limbs but not even bleeding out or anything.” He started to act annoyed. “Look I have things to do, I expect your report by tomorrow, let us know your thoughts in the appropriate feedback section. Have a nice day. Get out.” 

You stared at him frustrated before storming out of the room and almost running into someone. “Sorry,” you muttered before looking up. It was Nanami. 

He looked down at you concerned by the state you were in, bloodied and sweaty. “Y/N are you okay?” 

For some reason that was your last straw. His question made your eyes start watering. You rolled your eyes blinking hard to try to stop the tears. “I’m fine.” You said not meeting his gaze. He didn’t move. 

“You should go see Shoko.” He said, his voice now softer. He moved his hand to your face, carefully placing it under your chin to make you look at him. His thumb grazed your cheek. You looked up at him and frowned, tears leaking from your eyes. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. Nothing had been going your way and you were exhausted. You took a step forward towards Nanami and wrapped your arms around him. 

It was stupid, but you desperately needed some kind of comfort. He didn’t move at first but he eventually put his arms around you. You buried your face into his shirt and felt yourself relax for the first time in hours. You felt your eyes close right as your legs gave out beneath you.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

˚₊✩‧₊nana here: okay okay i got a little (a lot) carried away with the fight scene. I just love making Y/N a badass and I promise it makes sense later. Again theres a lot added in thats part of a longer story but idk...if anything i'll cross post here and ao3. Thank yall for reading and as always if you saw a typo, no you didn't.

please click on through to pt. 4 and if you did read this all, I love you.

super duper shout out to @zoldsick for reading and editing my crazy ideas, thank you cath<3

pt. 1 pt. 2. pt. 4

˚₊✩‧₊ taglist: @wrldtups @rjreins @phattyboo90 @tnyblacklesbo @silkija @justwantedachange @inthedarkshadows000 @nniiyyaa @starkmila09 @sikuthealien @wifenanami @bloombb @kentos-glasses @inciteterr0r

[taniahylian]

Who is Bessmert

So, I bet all of us have wondered, since the "Notes on Shouri" event trrailer was announced, who exactly is Bessmert. After all, being an important character, but not playable, and with a very mysterious past and abilities, Bessmert is quite intriguing indeed. And now I'm gonna tell you who I think she is.

Fair warning though, this is a bit long, but I promise it's worth the read, so please stick with me until the end!

Let's start with the most basic evidence: Her appearence. She's tall, has grey hair, dresses in a typical exlorer garment with a big black coat over it, and has her eyes covered with a white cloth. But, most importantly, she looks quite similar to Vertin, and that's just where the similarities start.

Their accents are pretty much the same, as well as the calm way in which they talk most of the time, and they are very smooth talkers; able to convince people of almost anything.

Bessmert's team seems to be aware of this as well, since Krolik even requests she doesn't speak before they vote about going back, no doubt fearing she'll convince them to keep going.

Later on we also see her use this ability to convince Getian to help them solve the Lushu situation instead of running away, similar to what Vertin has done with Druvis and Jessica, for example.

Now, aside from this almost supernatural manner of speach, Bessmert is also similar to Vertin when it comes to her arcane abilities; she also doesn't fight directly, but is able to sense arcanum in various ocassions, something we've only seen Vertin do in canon, and that other characters have remarked how rare of an ability it is.

However, unlike Vertin, she can sense even more than just arcane skills, like nature-related phenomena, the environment around her, and even the intent behind other people's actions. To the point that she's able to walk around freely without having her sight.

I believe this might be because Bessmert is an adult, more experienced arcanist, but also because her blindness might amplify her abilities, since she uses it to make up for her lack of sight.

Although of course here there's the issue if she's even an arcanist at all... or perhaps something else entirely.

Getian tells her, as they are waiting for the miracle of "Ask and acquire", that the pattern he saw in her bones is unlike anything he's ever seen and, therefore, he can't read them. He also said tit unnerved him to the point of wanting to run away. This makes me think that Bessmert might be especial in some way, perhaps in the same way Vertin is; being immune to the storm, and there is evidence for this, surprisingly.

First of all; most of the places we know about that are a "safe zone" to the storm have one common feature; a fog or something that makes people hallucinate, get exited and/or pass out. These features are all present in Vertin's suitcase, the Uluru stadium and the Aperion cave. Not only that, but we can assume the agent responsible for this effect is Asymetric Nucleide R, a compound that is also found on the Manus masks and on the storm raindrops.

Why is this relevent to Bessmert? Well, it seems like Pei City is actually surrounded by the same kind of fog as that in Aperion and Vertin's suitcase, and the origin of it is the temple where people used to go for the Divination.

Now, Bessmert acts surprised when hearing this explanations from Jiu, and we can especulate that it's because she has been to one of such places before, but regardless, we know she and her team encountered such fog before arriving to Pei City.

After following the direction Yenisei's skill tells them has the strongest arcane energy in the area, they arrive to a place where everything suddenly changes; it's different, odd, surrounded by a weird fog and, most importantly, makes them very tired to the point of almost passing out.

However, Bessmert remains unaffected by it all. She especulates it might be because she's used to high altitudes, but they're going downhill, so I doubt that's the case. Plus, even when we see Yenisei's vision getting cloudy and that she almost can't go on anymore, Bessmert remains compleatly unaffected.

This is all reminiscent of Vertin being compleatly unaffected in the suitcase's spinning wheel area, the Aperion cave and the Uluru Stadium, while others pass out pretty quickly, and it leads me to think that Bessmert, very likely, is also immune to the storm.

And there's one last piece of evidence here: Bessmert's name, which in Russian means "Without Death" or "Immortal", and likely has something to do with her ability to survive even the ends of multiple eras. Although I also think this isn't her real name for two reasons: firstly it'd be far too convinient, and also she's very likely not Russian, but Britlish. Why? Because every other Russian character has a Russian accent, while Bessmert's accent is distinctively British.

So what does all this evidence point towards? I think we all know the answer, right? Bessmert is, very likely, Vertin's mother, or at the very least related to Vertin in some way. But considering Vertin is searching for her mother since the beginning of the prologue, and all we know about that woman is that she's "special" (Constantine's words) and the Foundation tried to cover up her existance, this mysterious woman with a lot of characteristics similar to Vertin's seems like the prime candidate.

But that's not all. I'm about to tell u some other theories about who Bessmert is that, although might not be as impressive as being Vertin's mom, are also interesting.

First: She's Urd. Yes, the explorer that went to Aperion and then wrote a travel note about it. First of all because it really seems something that Bessmert would do; travel to a remote island in search of a mysterious cave that grants answers (like Ask and Acquire). But also because Urd is very likely a pseudonym, since Urd is a type of *bean* from Asia.

And finally... Notes on Shouri isn't Bessmert's debut on the R1999 events. In fact, she appeared at the start of the very first event; The theft of the rimet cup.

In case you need a refresher, the event starts up with the newspaper boy trying to sell a newspaper to a "lady in black", who then turns around and the boy notices she's blind.

At this point, the lady asks him to read the news for her, promising to pay for it, which he obliges. Now, we never see her face, but we hear her voice, and it's eerily similar to Bessmert's.

Not only that, but that same voice finishes up the event, apparently dictating an article about the events we see unfold thoughout the story for the UTTU magazine.

Now, of course Pandora Wilson is the main editor of UTTU, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bessmert sometimes wrote articles for it as well, since she's so knowledgable about arcanists, and has traveled all over the world.

So yeah, I believe Bessmert is this mysterious voice in the rimet cup event as well.

But what do you think? Am I overthinking about this one npc way too much? XD. Let me know in the comments!

[sporesgalaxy]

The way Dungeon Meshi does gender makes me insane. It’s stated over and over that Falin and Laios really are more similar than anyone is looking for- Laios directly states as much at one point, Marcille mentions it when Falin wakes up the first time and starts bemoaning not eating any monsters, the magic mirror story even has fem!Toshiro crushing on Laios- but Laios is so protective of his little sister. Laios leaves home to start making a life he can one day share with her. And she leaves magic school because he has failed, and failed so hard that she’s worried that she might never see him again if she lets him leave without her. He wants to protect her from the way the world treats him, but he does not or does not want to understand the terrible truth- the world will never treat her as harshly as it does him, because she is a pretty ‘quirky’ girl and he is a big autistic man. Falin is happy, doing well in her own sphere, making a single friend (because she is still autistic, and has struggles of her own, even if they’re a different kind), but Laios still feels a need to protect her because his experience of this world has been nothing but cold shoulders and distrust all the way down. This story makes me want to sprint into the river. Laios and Falin are the best characters of all time.

Ouhhhhh I dont have time to reread dungeon meshi to give you good sources but based on my doodoo memory and vibes therein: I have to disagree that Falin was necessarily doing "well," and I especially disagree that the tragedy here is that Laios was doing something unnecessary by trying to make a place in the world for him and Falin.

Falin gets along seemingly ok in the world but it's because she's agreeable to a fault .

What's so interesting to me about the Touden siblings is the different ways they've learned to deal with being The Odd Man Out. Laios set out to try and forcefully carve out a PLACE for him and Falin in the world, where they could both openly and unabashedly be themselves.....Falin stayed behind, and learned how to hide the things that made her stick out too much, and how to appease people on the verge of rejecting her and Laios.

That can be functional, but it isn't good. It isn't happiness. It hurts in a million tiny ways every single day, to hide yourself out of fear of rejection like that.

At school, Falin must have spent a lot of time alone before she befriended Marcille, since Falin was familiar enough with the surrounding wilderness that she knew where that small Dungeon opening was. She sought out what happiness she could by following her unusual passions in more private ways, where no one would judge her for it. Falin didn't expect anyone NOT to judge her for her "weirdness" before she met Marcille, so Falin didn't even try to connect with anyone before Marcille at a level more personal than "classmate." That's not doing well. That's not living.

This kind of self-isolation is a coping mechanism for neurodivergence that functions for a while, but it eats away at you. Falin considered marrying Toshiro despite not loving him, essentially because it seemed like the normal thing to do and she didn't think she'd get another chance to be married at all. What if she had gone through with that, or something similar by the same reasoning? Laios lived in a state of being rejected over and over, which obviously hurts like hell. In contrast, Falin was willing to live a life she never wanted just to avoid total rejection. That can be incredibly painful too, in its own way.

Falin and Laios were BOTH tragically fighting doomed battles to find a place for themselves in the world during the time they were separated. Working together, supporting each other, they're able to do a lot more. Cries.

[strelitzia-mystery1097]

What killed Macaque?

Well I was going to link my first post about this but I... can't find it. Like I checked over and over and tumblr keeps telling me I made no post about lmk which... is weird. I don't know if it was deleted or it's buried in the internet but that's... fine. Just kind of annoying that I can't find my own post.

Anyways I guess I should recap.

I have never liked the theories of 'Wukong didn't actually kill Macaque' or 'LBD changed Macaque's memories' or anything like that.

But also don't like when everything is blamed on Wukong and those Wukong haters and/or Macaque 'did nothing wrong' fans paint the whole situation as solely Wukong's fault.

Did Wukong make bad choices and mistakes. Yes.

But so did Macaque.

Their fallout is both their faults.

Macaque from season 4 is able to understand that the Brotherhood were on a path of destruction and were doomed but the Monk was able to lead Wukong down a different path.

But remember we saw in the scroll that the Brotherhood during the jttw believed that Wuking was a traitor and it was only Macaque not fully 100% believing it.

We know in the og jttw Macaque was less of his own character and more of a dark reflection of Wukong. But even then we shouldn't dismiss entirely what jttw Macaque did (except for cooking a Flower Fruit Mountain monkey because I think lmk would not make Macaque be so friendly with the FFM monkeys if that was canon in lmk).

Jttw Macaque impersonated Wukong, beat up the Monk, stole the group's supplies, took over Flower Fruit Mountain, declared that he was going to do the journey with the scriptures himself, and then got into a really long fight with the real Wukong and literally like only 2 people were able to tell who's the real one (Budda and like this lie detecting bull from the underworld?), and when Budda reveals Macaque's true form Wukong kills him.

So clearly some things will be different.

But I do believe that lmk Macaque would pretend to be Wukong and would try to befriend the Monk like in the jttw. Because Macaque at this point would try and figure out what's going on.

The last time he talked to the Monkey King they had a fight. So that's probably why he just doesn't ask Wukong directly.

Also we should probably account for how emotional and potentially unstable Macaque probably is at this point if his best friend is back and working for the enemy for some reason.

So he tries to figure out that reason. But the thing is that when Macaque pretends to Wukong, it's after a major fight between Wukong and the Monk so the kind Tang Sanzang is just not wanting to deal with Wukong even after he's being nice.

So all Macaque sees is this rude and mean Monk that bosses Wukong around. So yeah he beats the $hit out of this ungrateful Monk.

Plus he would extra angry if he knows about how the Monk uses the Circlet on Sukong and hurts his best friend to discipline him.

Then cut to Wukong finally fighting Macaque.

Wukong has learned to be better and is probably seeing how the Brotherhood and his past deeds were not great, and Macaque was a part of that past.

Macaque is probably extremely upset that Wukong is taking the Monk's side and is just abandoning and leaving him again. No it's worst, he's turning on Macaque to stop him.

So this fight is probably extremely emotionally harrowing, with both of them not communicating and just having breakdowns and/or shoving down their true wants.

I mean in season 5 from the glimpse we see of the fight, Wukong is begging Macaque to not do this while Macaque is just laughing. So yeah he's probably have a complete breakdown and is hiding it under his dramatic b%tch persona he perfects after his revival to not be vulnerable.

One way this could end is Wukong accidently killing Macaque in a fit of rage or to protect his new family. Instead of killing his dark reflection he's killing his past.

But I also saw this interesting theory by @Cherllyio where Macaque's weird probably chaos related powers + him losing control of himself and his emotions while having a breakdown = Macaque self destructing literally.

I definitely hope that whatever the answer ends up being, that it's a situation where there's blame on both sides. That it was a messy situation and there's regret and pain (sudden LBD flash) but now if they wanted to, the two can finally... talk.

[kiirotoao]

About the Byler scene that changed it all

The van scene is by no means my favorite Byler scene because it hurts. A lot. But at the same time, the power that it holds cannot match anything else between Mike and Will for me.

We’ve seen years of Mike worrying about Will from the very first “that’s weird. I don’t see him.” To the “it was the best thing I’ve ever done.” From “it’s not my fault” to “I’m sorry” to “maybe you should have reached out more” to “friends. Best friends,” Mike is sincere. Over. And over. And over again. He loves out in the open for all to see, yes, even in his mistakes, but that’s what makes him human. That’s what makes him who he is. He’s sarcastic and quick and irritable, but oh, when he’s leading, inspiring, and guiding?

Will plays an important role in Stranger Things wherein we rarely get to see his heart. But no, of course we do. He’s the one everyone fought for since season 1, so of course he’s known to us. But that’s just it, everyone else fights for him. They say that proof of good character is if other people recognize it in you, and Will has been the center of that treatment from the very start. Sure, he’s also seen in very negative lights, being made fun of even when he’s assumed dead, but I don’t care about the people who don’t know him. I care about the people who do. And those who do search for him until he’s found. Never give up even when it seems theoretically impossible. Protect him, family and friends alike.

And those things may just be givens in most loving relationships, so let’s take it a step further. What do people say about him? In season 1, Mike asserts that Will risked his character’s life for The Party - an imaginary compromise - and Lucas immediately understands the signal to go out and save him, taking even a fictitious virtue and ascribing it so meaningfully to Will that it’s worth fighting for him in real danger. Then in season 2, Joyce recounts about Will giving a little girl his own toy truck simply because she was sad. In season 3, when Will is explaining what he thinks happened to the Mind Flayer and why it inexplicably seemed to return, Mike is at his defense, saying he’s right without a doubt. Will is trustworthy, and the rest follow. Then in season 4 in arguably one of the sweetest scenes in the whole show, Will and Jonathan are on the verge of tears, and when Will says that he’ll always be there for Jonathan, Jonathan says that he knows he will be. Will is selfless, venerable, caring and wise in a sweet mixture, and when he loves, people know it.

For everything. Everything except his love for Mike. His love for Mike is something that cannot be easily digested or explained. Looking back at that Will and Jonathan scene by the tub before the mind fight, this is something that takes a step into the part of his heart that no one readily sees or pays attention to. If it is, again, it’s pushed in ridicule, covered in insensitive names, not celebrated. It’s something that makes him cry, something that he can’t even say out loud. Jonathan was the one to recognize that things were complicated for his brother and he reached out, knowing that it was hurting Will.

But despite the pain. Despite all of the shame that comes with being who he is, he lets his love out in a big reveal, the most anticipated hint all season long in season 4. And who does he reveal his heart to? Mike. He both risks it all in front of the very person of his affection and gives everything up for him, including his own love.

But be not despaired, because love is not a finite resource.

I know that this scene hurts on so many levels, especially because of what Will says about himself, but look at how Mike sees Will. I don’t think that I even need to put evidence here, but it’s just so tender and important to realize that this is not a hopeless scene.

This is the one who’s on the other end of Will’s message. This kind of attention is not going to become, ‘oh, hey, Will, I’m sorry, but I can’t accept what you said because you lied to me about who it’s from.’ If Mike does say this, he’s a liar. Look at him. He’s seeing Will plenty without a guise on his end. This is Mike falling in love with what Will is offering him.

And given everything that we know about Mike who stops at nothing to protect the ones he loves and Will who would give himself up for the ones he loves, both loving to the point of sacrifice, hand in hand, how can you come away from this scene saying that Mike would easily reject Will? That Mike won’t listen to Will and consider both of their own affections? That they won’t find an understanding? That forgiveness is foreign to them?

Will has given Mike the power to decide to buy the lie or realize it. And in a show that revolves around “friends don’t lie” and uncovering hidden truths, I doubt that Mike is going to simply buy it.

And from there, how beautiful would it be for Mike to openly accept him? To give the boy who thought he lost it all the chance to be loved in a way that makes him feel not different in a world that hates him? And how much more sweet would it be for Will to forever make Mike feel special, unceasingly, without the need to lie? To let him know how adored he is and how he doesn’t have to fight his heart anymore over a romance of obligation rather than bliss?

Byler is endgame. We’re almost there. It just makes sense.

Happy Byler Day. 💙💛

[gayraeofsun]

i just really want to scream about this movie into the void because it was so well done, and i doubt anyone will really see this but i don't really have anyone i could have a deep discussion about this with.

trigger warning and spoiler warning ahead for the movie blink twice. content ahead discusses themes around sa, including r*pe, drugging, manipulation, and general physical/verbal abuse.

i don't keep up with any previews or recent movie releases much anymore, so i was going into this movie almost completely blind like i do with most new movies anymore. i had seen one preview, but it was apparently plain and simple enough for me to mostly forget about it. the irony in that will be made known a bit later on.

the movie automatically opens with a screen that displays a trigger warning, which is something that i had been seeing for the first time in any kind of visual media. normally these things are already listed by the ratings, but as a sa survivor who had no idea what this movie was going to be, it was a good thing to see so i could brace myself for what was to come. do i think this is necessary for any and every movie of this kind? no, it feels a little redundant (again, these things are typically included in the ratings). and, well, asking me to not watch if it would upset me is kind of a no deal, since i paid for a ticket and popcorn to see this on the big screen.

we're immediately introduced to our two main characters, two best friends, and it's hard to not immediately fall for their relationship with each other. so playful and silly and ridiculous, you can immediately tell they adore each other's company in their shitty job living in their shitty apartment, and you can tell that they're written by a woman who loves these characters and wants to portray them as relatable people. the interactions between the whole cast of girls, i think, was just outstandingly done. they felt realistic, not constantly shitting on each other and fighting for the attention of the men (though some jealousy of that fashion is still portrayed). they were all there enjoying the island and they ended up bonding together wonderfully. they were funny without being over-the-top rude or nasty or promiscuous, as is portrayed commonly in female characters in popular media. i can't and won't stop gushing over how much these characters felt just like real life girls that i was hanging out with.

this movie was really great at putting a pit in your stomach and slowly making it grow. of course, the trigger warning at the beginning spoils what's to come, so for me the pit was there from the start. any sensible person who's been socialized to be a woman will know, you don't ever just run away with some random ass group of men you don't know to the middle of nowhere with no cell service. but the little things that make the main character, frida, stop and question are so subtle, and so easily dismissed to start with. the used lip gloss in the drawer, the available clothes despite being an "unexpected" guest, the weird cleaning staff. but they increasingly get more odd. the island is full of venomous snakes and they all have to be killed on sight. something about these flirty interactions isn't quite right anymore, and he's talking about repressed memories. what day even is it? why am i always waking up with dirt under my nails?

who even knows or cares though, since we're all high and/or drunk 24/7. welcome to paradise!

it builds and builds until it begins to unravel, slowly and then all at once as the girls come to the realization of what happens to them every night when they get unbelievably high after dinner. the bond between the first two to piece it together was outstanding, and i love that there wasn't a cheap "find the phones and call authorities" plan. they worked out why that wouldn't work at all, because who would they believe? the "hysterical bitches" making claims without any kind of solid evidence, or the rich white man who's now a reformed soul and probably good friends with some of the cops?

the ending is not a happy one, in my eyes, though i believe it was probably supposed to be portrayed as one? two girls live and three girls die by the end. the ringmaster (ceo) of the whole thing ends up accidentally taking his own forgetfulness juice and suddenly doesn't understand what's going on and why all his friends are dead or have been otherwise brutalized. he knocks over lit candles and then trips and knocks himself out in his stupor, and the island burns down, the photographic evidence (that was later discovered) and all. i thought it was just going to end there and we would be left with the ambiguous ending, and that's never satisfying and feels very overdone anymore.

but instead, we're given a scene where our main character is now the ceo of the company, and legally married to the man who lured her away and horrifically abused her. twice. i interpreted this as her getting her own form of justice/revenge. i doubt she gives him half the treatment he gave her, but now she controls him and everything he owns and knew, and gets every bit of respect she wants. he killed her best friend and two other girls after overpowering the lot of them every single night. in a perfect world, he'd get tried and punished for his crimes legally. but all the evidence of it ever happening burned to the ground. so this is what she does to cope. in the final scene, she seems very satisfied, more than pleased to make her new husband's old crew squirm. she becomes the thing that destroyed her and so many others (but yk, most likely without the rapist cult).

one character i very suddenly grew interested in was the scrawniest boy in the group. he flies perfectly under the radar and doesn't appear in many of scenes that portray the gruesome sa. the one where he's in clear view, he appears to be another victim, trying to flee from one of the bigger men and receiving a black eye, which he would have no memory of getting the next morning. he's told by one of the girls that he smells nice, most likely referencing the perfume that was making them forget everything. it seemed very clear that he was in a victim role here as well, likely also being sa-ed. but he's never seen bound and gagged with the girls.

his final scene gets interesting when the ceo berates him for doing nothing to help the girls the entire time (yeah, the same ceo millionaire who's been basically orchestrating this whole sick fucking show in his perfect little getaway island). how he thinks there's a special place in hell for people who sit and do nothing in the face of evil. there are two very different ways to interpret this. 1) he wasn't actually getting drugged and abused with the girls, and was there as someone who didn't actively participate in abusing the girls, but also didn't do anything to try to stop it either. this could be blatant commentary on the two types of evil; while "not all men" r*pe and abuse people, not enough men will speak out against it or try to run to the victim's defense. or 2) the ceo was casting blame onto someone who was genuinely confused as to what was happening (which seems to ring true in both scenarios), and someone who was also a victim and stuck in a completely helpless situation. both could hold some level of truth, but ultimately i read him as the latter, thinking he was meant to represent the less common male victim. he gets killed by one of the girls, who wasn't specifically targeting him but also wasn't taking any chances, and that's the last we see of him. in my eyes he could either be read as the kind of evil that merely observes and therefore was rightfully murdered, or he could represent his male victims often get forgotten about or less acknowledged, which could speak as to why he was killed off so quickly never to be discussed again.

and i've gotta say, one thing i really appreciate about the scenes depicting r*pe is that it put a lot of the focus on the r*pists and not their victims. they were careful to not show any nudity or any shots of the women getting r*ped, but still showed them getting forced down when they tried to flee. i have not personally seen any other graphic scenes of this nature in other movies, but from what i hear a lot of it can get rather pornographic, and i feel like that's incredibly distasteful when you're trying to depict something that's absolutely vile. this movie does a great job of getting the absolute terror of the moment across without compromising any of the actresses by posing them seductively or showing off their bodies, and same goes for the men (if you don't count a couple of them being shirtless).

the writing is so wonderful, and the little clues as to what's happening beneath the surface are so good and plentiful. this is a movie that i don't think i'd ever be able to sit through again, but the sense of dread that continued to grow and grow will surely stick with me. it was very darkly funny in many places, which did great to break up some of the tension. for anyone who was able to stomach it, i would highly recommend watching through it once you're able. i think it was outstandingly well done and handled certain things as well as it could without watering any of it down.

[rowan-of-waterdeep]

I realised last night why Ansur and Wyll falls flat for me.

Yes, the Emperor steals the scene.

Yes, it feels like it's supposed to be a huge moment and it's just not.

But.

It's the lessons that really fail to resonate for me.

Take Wyll.

He's a man who, at a very young age, saw a need out in the wilderness and realised that while other people could fill that need, no one else was doing a thing.

So instead of coming to the logical and easy conclusion - the problem is too big and it's useless - he simply jumped in to help.

And he's continued in exactly that mindset.

Refugees? Help. Mind flayers? Kill. Dead Three? Let's fuckin' GO.

Never does this dude step back and whine that someone else should handle this challenge, it's too big, wahhhh.

Then we get to Ansur and there are two lessons, but the most obvious is: Wyll, you don't need a dragon, you can fight the Absolute yourself!

Oh for FUCKS' SAKE.

Wyll was already primed to do that. Fuck off.

OK, onto the second lesson, which has a bit more nuance. A bit.

The challenges. Let's ignore the fact that you can only get Wyll's input on them if you're not letting him do them as the controllable character. And the weirdness of the player character being a stand-in for Wyll here, because I can see how the game design was limiting.

Let's move on to the good: Wyll receiving affirmation - finally! fucking finally! - that he's good and worthy. Balduran declares that he's learnt the 4 principles well. His father echoes the praise.

OK, cool. Except.

The game treats the Duke path as kind of - sort of, it feels like they had fights over this - his less-good path. Which utterly robs this interlude of so much of its potential.

Because this affirmation of Wyll is about his worthiness to rule. His worthiness to lead. Smashing these challenges should propel him straight onto the Duke Wyll path in a blaze of determination to lead his people to a better future.

... Instead he runs off to become the Blade of Avernus.

(Not denigrating that ending, btw, but it feels intensely dislocated coming right after you'd make such a caring and just ruler, Wyll!, with zero explanation around it.)

So, to summarise:

Wyll learned a lesson he didn't need to learn.

Wyll learned something he did need to learn, and did absolutely nothing with it.

And that's why I yawn at the Ansur storyline.

[shigayokagayama]

incomplete list of weird/interesting manga-anime discrepancies

-you know the bit where they break into the girls highschool in episode 2? yea thats chapter 56. spliced into the middle of chapter 4. its supposed to go before the bit with the ghost family as a lead up to the mogami arc with mob starting to consider evil spirits as just as much “people” as living humans are. all things considered its kind of weird how well it fits its anime placement

-ritsu in the manga gets introduced in the same chapter as teru. you dont see mobs family at all for the first few chapters. infact i dont think his parents appear until like. chapter 25????? every interaction you see between mob and any of his family is completely made up for the anime

-in the manga during the claw arc instead of reigen sending them away all the lackeys just stood there awkwardly during the fight w the scars fdnjksndkjgnd

-mogami arc got GUTTED my god. the part where the fake psychics tried to murder minori got removed, shinras role in the arc got reduced to basically nothing, they move mogamiland ritsu to a bridge like 50 feet away instead of having him walk right over mob, mob only gets beat up like twice, the cat lives, the boxcutter bit is totally removed, the fight with the spirits is made a lot more abstract and less graphic. like im glad this one took the hit instead of the separation arc bc i cant imagine that arc ever being effective as one episode but wow.

-putting the “mob finding his family dead” thing at the end of the episode instead of in the middle of a chapter where it originally was was an objectively hilarious move

-rip the scene of teru outsmarting all three claw guys and saying “say old man have you ever been tortured before” unfortunately all scenes of teru being competent are not plot relevant and must die. also teru can make shadow clones

-hey remember those weird satellite people in claw keeping the viewer updated on where all the characters were in that infinite arc?

-mob with a gun.

-mob getting briefly knocked out while fighting toichiro and dimple possessing him then getting kicked out was replaced w toichiro just throwing him out the window or somethhing???

-toichiro saying that he only kept the super five around as spare batteries and draining serizawas power getting cut was a personal affront to me

-every single emotion mob cycled through in the anime got a 100% meter. the kid was super emotionally unstable in that fight

-that old man whos house they went to whos wraith made everyone asleep that they exorcised? yea they anime team made that up. they never went to his house in the manga, he just went to spirits and such for a shoulder massage

-manga reigen got 0 money for helping the yokai dude. it wasnt on the table. also most of the stuff he was saying was lifted from a video game serizawa played which he pointed out. also serizawa thought getting arrested was a type of spell

-takenakas general meanness was significantly toned down manga takenaka was a huge bitch

-in general the alien arc was a lot funnier in the manga? like the scene where reigen crashes they had reached a dead end on an extremely narrow path and were driving in reverse while tome and takenaka were screaming at each other in the back and inukawa was 5 seconds from snapping and killing everyone in the car. these might be my favorite pages in the entire manga they as so fucking funny

-originally when tome said she wouldnt keep climbing reigen suggested mob carry her with telekinesis (which horrified her) and mob said he was too motion sick to use his powers (obvious lie) but could carry her instead which got her to get up

-mezato asking mob to sign a t shirt for the psycho helmet cult in exchange for relationship advice got cut

-i cry every day that the sequence of ???% waking up didnt get animated it set a very different tone than the anime did. the anime was like. slow build up of dread. the manga was immediately bone deep horror i was literally sitting in my room yelling “WHAT???” over and over again at my computer as i clicked through it

-shigeo and mob conversation cut down significantly, all the references to the body improvement club being mob making a new self rather than embracing who he really is and being scared that all the friends hes made wouldnt like the real him removed </3

-the scene where reigen takes his shoes off is made a lot less somber and depressing. it feels less like “oh he knows hes going to die” and more like. triumphant? in the anime

-100% shigeo kageyama is an anime addition they added specifically to ruin my “the first time we see mob 100% is to fight dimple and the last time is to stop himself from fighting dimple” observation

-anime teru generally seems like hes in a better place than manga teru? manga teru seems very melancholy and like he doesn’t really know what to do with his life or his place in the world (which seems to put shigeo off) but anime teru is like wanna go shopping ^_^ *sips tea happily*

-manga shigeo deliberately threw the cake directly in reigens face and my fury over them making this ambiguous will last until i am dead