#so they're three very strong characters in one package

[lurkingshan]

10 Things I Love About Only Boo!

*kicks down the door* I'm a few weeks late but I have arrived and I am here to yell about this fucking adorable show. Have you heard that it's the cutest shit you've ever seen in a fresh new package of all your favorite silly old romance tropes? Besties, this is truly the Sunday Serotonin we need. Here are the top 10 things I love about it:

The main romance is between a confident sunshine protagonist and a kind older boy working through his grief and an artistic block. Mok (Moo) and Kang are such nice boys, two cinnamon rolls too sweet and pure for this world, and I loved them instantly. They have a nice crackly chemistry between them and really solid communication right from the start.

The setting is rural and refreshing. Moo moves to Nakhom Pathom to attend school for a semester because his mom wants him to focus on his studies before she will allow him to pursue a career as an idol. Little did she know she was delivering him to a cute boy who would become the new distraction.

The crushing and flirting starts immediately, and it's mutual. They just like each other, man. Kang is (slightly) older and trying to be responsible about keeping Moo focused on his studies so he's putting up some token resistance, but it's very very token. They both find excuses to keep seeing each other after they meet.

There's a side couple with a long-term pining friends to lovers arc. The way I squealed when they revealed that photo wall. I support you, Payos, you will get your boo. These two also have a lovely, easy chemistry and seem so comfortable around each other. Their characterization also gets a fun twist in the beginning of the story.

The writing is strong and assured. This was written by the same screenwriting team as Cooking Crush, aka the best written original Thai bl of last season. These folks know their way around a smart romcom. They know how to deploy classic tropes so they feel fresh, build authentic character arcs, and make all the beats of the story feel confident. We are in good hands and don't need to worry about any out of left field conflicts or weird plot turns with this one.

A fresh new cast brings a ton of energy. I really love all four of the main actors for this show. They're young and bright and breathing some new life into an old formula. And both pairs have solid chemistry and seem comfortable in their scenes together.

Some of our old favorites are here too. They've made the smart decision to bolster the young main cast by surrounding them with more experienced seniors like our lady Milk, here playing Kang's friend and neighbor who is all up in his crush on Moo. Louis and Book are also going to show up at some point.

The show incorporates music and dancing in such a charming way. Moo is one of those kids who just has to dance, and the show mines a lot of comedy around his efforts to stifle the impulse as his mom ordered. I don't think he'll hold out for long, though, because Payos and Tae are on him to train with them. And of course the music supervisor is having a great time working in some classic GMMTV music gags (yes, Love Score and Too Cute To Handle both make memorable appearances).

It's a high school story brimming with youthful energy without being mired in immaturity. The tone of this show reminds me of My School President in the best way, in that it has all the sweetness and innocence of a high school romance without making the characters so immature and bad at communication that it's annoying to watch. As expected from the CC writers, these characters may be inexperienced but they are going to talk to each other and honesty will prevail every time.

We are only three episodes in and the romance is already well underway. This is the kind of show where we will see the main pair flirt and date and face obstacles together. The swoony moments started immediately and Moo is already throwing around the faen title. We know from the synopsis that the core conflict will come when Moo is forced to choose between his relationship with Kang and his dream of being an idol, and I expect he will be finding a way around that choice. I'll be strapped in for the ride because I already believe in these two.

[dayntee]

I have very strong opinions about disaster wizards, and especially THIS MOTHERFUCKER:

Listen, if you haven't played Pillars of Eternity, I understand. It's a bit niche unless you're like us olds who grew up on real-time-with-pause CRPGs in the 90's and early 00's (namely the original Baldur's Gate, BG2, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights). That type of gameplay appeals to a veeeeeery particular crowd of people, and if you weren't either super into the Forgotten Realms or D&D in general, it likely wasn't your bag.

THAT SAID - with Avowed coming out next week, I need to gush about one of my favorite fantasy worlds and its disaster wizard because I just love this stupid man so much.

Mild spoilers for Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire ahead:

Eora is a fantastically interesting world. It has some of the most unique fantasy races to play and explore, it leans into its darkness and philosophy hardcore, and it takes a look at gods and says "What's that, you pretentious fucks? Sit your asses down, you have no power over me."

The combat and mechanics system is intricate and complex, but vaguely familiar if you've played any form of tabletop RPG. It does its own thing while still being reminiscent of stats and mechanics with which you're likely familiar. If you're the kind of person that likes to theorycraft their character into a fine-tuned murder machine, you will like this system. If you aren't, that's fine too - there's an option to take all the thought out of the process and let the game level you up itself so you don't have to worry about it and can just roll around doing story stuff.

Pillars of Eternity had a friendship (but not romance) system, which sets you up to have the best found-family adventure with total nutjobs that also has more Matt Mercers than you can shake a stick at (seriously, if you pick a male PC and the right voice option, within the first 20 minutes, your party can be composed of exactly three Matts). It deals with your character, known as the Watcher, getting the world's worst split personality syndrome and having to hunt down the mystery behind why babies are suddenly being born with no souls.

Stick with me, this ride is WILD.

After you resolve this pretty inconvenient global cataclysm, you settle down in a keep you acquire during the course of the adventure, only for a god to wake up between game 1 and 2 in your basement and *checks notes* CRUSH YOU TO ALMOST-DEATH.

Oh, and he also takes a part of your soul. For funsies!

Berath, the god of death, offers to restore you to life to figure out what basement-god (Eothas) has planned so long as you agree to be their herald. While you can say no, that just ends the game, so your will to live means you're in on this whole thing and now you get to sail a boat to do it, for reasons, I guess.

Several of the companions from the first game reappear in this one, but to keep on topic, the most important one is Aloth. Why?

BECAUSE NOW YOU CAN WOO THIS ASSHOLE AND THE ANGRY SCOTTISH LADY THAT LIVES INSIDE HIS HEAD.

Aloth is one of my favorite disaster wizards because he has all my favorite tropes just... built right in:

Crippling self-confidence issues

A "split personality" (it's more complicated than that) that is both mortifying and also potentially one of the best characters in the game

A maker of Generally Bad Choices™

Canonically bisexual

Entirely non-committal (at least without a lot of work)

A PAIN IN THE ASS TO ROMANCE

I say these are my favorite, but they're really just all the qualities that every other disaster wizard I've ended up falling for tend to have in some way. Aloth just winds up having them all, wrapped up in a handsome elven package, and then voiced by Matt Mercer because fuck me in particular, I guess, god damnit.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk on why Aloth is amazing and more people need to romance this jerk. I say this with nothing but love—it's 100% worth it, even when he's breaking your heart (or his romance flag is bugged and you have to roll back three hours to fix it AHHAHAH GOD WHY).

Should you want to read along with the general flow of my head canon for my own playthrough, which is a helluva slow burn will they/won't they extravaganza, you can find the largely completed series here on AO3. There's even smut now!

Back to Solavellan Hell with me.

[whatwooshkai]

omg i'm obsessed with this au and I love your writing style! It's so emphasizing and really makes me feel the pain, the fleeting happiness, the crushing loneliness, that Heatwave or whatever character is experiencing.

if no one has asked yet, could I get a 14?

The more Blades thinks about it, the more Chase's finials look like Streetwise's.

They're a little thinner, and definitely don't move as much, but the way they flatten to his helm when he's uncomfortable or splay out horizontally when he's mad or flap and wiggle when he's happy- they're his own little quirks, and they're not quite the same, but they're just similar enough that it makes his spark ache.

They're playing Jenga, with Cybertronian-sized pieces the Chief somehow managed to get his hands on. Chase's finials are pinned flat against his helm in concentration.

He pulls a piece from the side about the middle of the tower, his glossa poking out next to a fang, concentration so palpable his field has seemingly frozen still.

Chase pulls the piece from the tower with nary a sound or a wobble, then places it atop. His faceplate is set in stone-cold satisfaction, but his finials are wagging uncontrollably.

Without even thinking about it, Blades sends a little package of warmth and fondness tied up with a teasing bow through the bond.

Chase doesn't even react, already scanning the tower and plotting his next move. His finials are stock still and his optics don't even flick to Blades and his field doesn't change a bit. Blades is about to say something, whine about being ignored, when it suddenly occurs to him that he and Chase aren't bonded.

As much as he calls the other rescue bots his brothers... they're not his gestalt.

They're not in his head. They don't feel him. His thoughts don't drift through their processors from time to the time, the same way his don't float through theirs.

He just sent love into a bond that's been dead for...

Primus, how long has it actually been?

"It is your turn," Chase says, snapping Blades out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah," Blades mutters, taking a low risk move that wobbles the tower a little, but doesn't send it over the edge. Chase scrutinizes him with narrowed optics.

"Are you alright?" he asks, optics tracking the way Blades' rotors have drooped.

He quickly pulls them flush to his frame. "Fine," he insists, and Chase drops it, going on to pull another risky move.

Blades leans back on his heels, regarding Chase. He's thought about bonding with the other rescue bots before. Three, four, five, even eight-way amica bonds might've not been common place but were never truly out of the ordinary. And an amica bond, even like that, has nothing on what a gestalt bond is. They'd feel strong emotions, and be able to send messages once strong enough, but they wouldn't know everything about each other. They wouldn't have to train for years to keep from waking each other up with their nightmares. They wouldn't have to shut each other out every time one of them even thought about taking on a partner. And Primus forbid something happens...

Well. It'll hurt. But it won't hurt as much as that.

"What are you thinking about?" Chase asks.

Blades blinks, studying the mech. He's watching him curiously with a very Streetwise expression, open and vulnerable. "Bonding," he admits, then reaches for the tower again.

Chase makes a noncommittal hum. "I still have a datapad with an in depth article on different types of bonds, if you'd like to read it?"

"Thanks, Chase," Blades says softly. "I think I would."

He places the next block on top of the tower, and Chase immediately starts touching it again, picking another piece. "I think Heatwave can read minds," he says suddenly.

Blades laughs abruptly and humorlessly, leaving Chase to stumble and scramble for the tower. "No," he says, shaking his helm. "He can't. I know what it's like to have someone poking around in my head."

The Jenga tower crumbles at their pedes.

[sephirthoughts]

for the headcanon ask game please do kadaj and loz too? 🥺🙏

YOU DARE CIRCUMVENT MY ASK GAME VENGEANCE

and yet my honor compels me

I ACCEPT YOUR COWARDLY ANONYMOUS CHALLENGE

MY PERFECT SON KADAJ

Sexuality Headcanon:

canon: i think the remnants are intended to be pretty much nonsexual beings in canon

serious: demisexual homoromantic ace with a tiny bit of potential for sexual attraction.

crack: poly pansexual slut-pilled crackiverse

Gender Headcanon:

canon: canon seems to present them as cismale

serious: nonbinary. i answered this about yazoo but it's pretty much the same for kadaj. i don't think the remnants care very much about biological gender, or gender in general. i think they accept male pronouns because that's what people use for them and they don't care.

crack: whatever is cuntiest

A ship I have with said character:

canon: none. i think they're all three nonsexual.

serious: cloud strife. i went into this with yazoo but i'll reiterate that they would only be into someone with jenova cells, and with the remnants, you can't have one with the others. it's a package deal and includes all three or none. HOWEVER they all represent very different personality aspects so whoever is their very lucky but very confused boyfriend (yes boyfriend, they are gay if they're into anyone at all) can have a lot of either fun ridiculousness or serious character drama with them.

crack: everyone cause crack. i'd really really really like to see the remnants tie up rufus shinra and completley WRECK him. i might write that.

A BROTP I have with said character:

canon: the other remnants

serious: cloud, because i want him to become their big-brother mentor who can hang with them physically, so they respect him. also i think cloud and kadaj are similarly very small very strong very angry dudes and both have a grudge with sephiroth, so they might find common ground. aside from cloud, i think kadaj would have an easier time getting along with vincent than anyone else. also in my HCs vincent is his sort-of dad anyway

crack: scarlett. not as weird as it sounds. she's a ruthless psychopath only interested in power. kadaj would respect that

A NOTP I have with said character:

canon: n/a

serious: anyone female. also sephiroth. there's too much deep-seated self-hatred and anger and resentment there. sephiroth sees his abuse of kadaj as self-abuse, because he sees kadaj as a part of himself that he hates and has to control lest it take over again, and kadaj sees sephiroth as a cruel and tyrannical elder brother, and the unfairly favored son of their mother who loved sephiroth but not the remnants. he is incorrect and jenova didn't give one dry fuck about any of them, but he still feels that way. anyway i can't get enough of kadaj-sephiroth mutual loathing. the blood-bound hate-attachment between them is soooooooooooo good. just not in a shippy way

crack: no NoTPs in crack, comrade

A random headcanon:

canon: kadaj's cat pupils are smaller and slightly more rounded than sephiroth's because it was either easier to animate that way, or they wanted him to look more juvenile. it's also a little inconsistent

serious: kadaj's cat pupils are smaller and slightly more rounded than sephiroth's because his body is immature and his connection to jenova is less close than sephiroth's, so he didn't manifest 'perfectly' when he grew a physical body. also his clothes are a copy of cloud's from a blurry and indisinct image in sephiroth's memory

crack: his bangs are in his face because he FUCKING LOVES the misfits

General opinion of said character:

kadaj is my favorite remnant, for a lot of reasons. he has the strongest personality and the most rage, and also the most sass and cunty style. but what i love about him the most is his perfect, heartbreaking, angry-kitten purity. he's not doing what he's doing because he wants to gain power or money or control over people, or anything like that. he's a ferocious baby wolverine doing exactly as his instincts tell him. i love that kind of character. no malice or greed or anything truly evil in him. he's just a force of nature like a hurricane or a wildfire. yes he will destroy your whole city and kill you and everyone you love but that is his nature so stop bullying him and let him knock down a few buildings! who is it hurting? aside from the people in the buildings

LOZ MY DARLING BABY BOY

Sexuality Headcanon:

canon: same as kadaj and yazoo, i think the remnants are intended to be pretty much nonsexual beings in canon

serious: demisexual homoromantic. tiny bit more potential for sexual attraction because he's more physical the other remnants but not a whole lot either way

crack: poly pansexual crackiverse baby!

Gender Headcanon:

canon: as above, canon seems to present them as cismale

serious: as with the other two, nonbinary.

crack: maybe he has two dicks you can't prove he doesn't

A ship I have with said character:

canon: none

serious: like i said, cloud strife. see above. as i said, i do have loz and yazoo kiss and hug each other and fall asleep together a lot, but as i also said, it's self-soothing, more than actually sexual. loz needs physical affection the most, and yazoo is beautiful and not as spiky as kadaj so loz gravitates to him. in turn, yazoo is drawn to loz's gentleness (when he's not smashing tifa through church support pillars) and has a natural desire to comfort him, so they are the most affectionate with each other. kadaj wants to snuggle too but he's way too tsundere to admit it

crack: whoever i feel like. maybe aerith. he'd need someone nurturing to be really sweet to him and take good care of him cause he is baby. yes he is a baby nuclear bomb but what of it he's still an innocent child EVERYONE BE NICE TO MY SON

A BROTP I have with said character:

canon: other remnants

serious: cloud, like i said above, but loz would have a secret awkward crush on him that he doesn't even understand, himself

crack: i'd like to see Loz be friends with reno, because they're both...in a similar intellectual bracket, let's call it

A NOTP I have with said character:

canon: n/a

serious: sephiroth, for almost the same reasons as kadaj, except sephiroth is less controlling and more physically violent with loz. to sephiroth, again, loz is just a part of himself, so when he throws him through a wall or off a building or uses him as a battering ram, he believes he's abusing himself, and has every right to do so. loz doesn't care about himself but if sephiroth ever laid a finger on yazoo, loz would go fucking nuclear. he'd still get his ass beat by sephiroth but he'd try. luckily sephiroth's physical violence seems to land almost entirely on loz, unless kadaj jumps in and tries to defend him. loz takes it without complaint because he thinks he's shielding his brothers, which he pretty much is.

crack: no NoTPs in crack babe

A random headcanon:

canon: loz is the youngest and cries a lot because he's literally a baby. i will never stop loving this

serious: loz is the sweetest and most sensitive and likes animals and nurses sick birds back to health despite kadaj telling him it's stupid and pointless and mocking him about it

crack: he can flick his tongue out and grab things like a lizard

General opinion of said character:

i love all the remnants, but loz is certainly the one who made me laugh the most. he needs to be in way more stuff as do all of them, and i will give square all kinds of money if they make them playable in some game PLEASE SQUARE GIVE US THE BOYS DON'T YOU WANT OUR MONEY??

thank you for the asks you cowardly dog, i will not have revenge i guess but i'm gonna fume SO impressively about it 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

[rosieveltsworld]

Good Evening/Morning to everyone, it's literally 12AM from I am but idc, because I have something to share for all of you lovely LOTR and Hobbit fans.

So as we know, some of us try to do different ways to cope with the many sad and deaths that we see in both films (still crying), but. There is one solution that made me feel less....depressed, and that is...

✨REINCARNATION✨

Yes, that is seriously my only way of coping with the six movies so I just wanted to share on what some of the characters got reincarnated as in their new life, (Since they couldn't live the best life in their old one..) so I present you all, the reincarnation of some of the characters, from the Hobbit and LOTR.

Alright so mainly the first ones I'm going to talk about are well. Bilbo, Thorin, and their adopted son Frodo (and his boyfriend).

Also feel free to make some other reincarnation headcannons for these three and four you can use my ideas for fanfics or stories, just make sure to credit or tag me in :)

Bilbo Baggins: Starting off strong with this one, since in the book and in the movies that I've watched and known a little about Bilbo, I feel like the most proper for him is to be reincarnated as a Writer and an Artist. The reasoning is because well he does seem like the type of old man who'd tell long ass stories and novels and also he's definitely very good with realism art.

A little start off, some of the characters age I've lowered it down so it fits within the stories, since some reincarnations, the person's age either goes up or down depending on well, how they lived their past life.

So in this reincarnation of Bilbo, he is around in his mid 40's so somewhere around 47-49 years old. He is a famously well known author in England, works diligently and literally has a perfect schedule for his everyday life (just like his old self). He is very rich with the arts and books that he publishes and sometimes sells, and would spend his money on art equipment and also home items. He lives with his nephew Frodo who in this new life, he is around 23-26 years old.

Next up...

Thorin Oakenshield: Now at first I wanted thorin to be reincarnated as maybe a CEO of a big company, BUT. yes big fat BUT, I changed my mind. Since I wanted him to still follow his old past self (without the greediness) and since he's on enemy terms with thranduil so I was like...ohh I have an idea why not make Thorin a;

M.A.F.I.A

Yes that's what I end up choosing and also because I think it kind of fits his whole character of being a leader and a king. He is respected by his fellow dwarves but he can be way too strict or cruel towards his workers and assistants. He lives in a huge manor far in the mountains (yep, still keeping some of the old traits) in England, but has another mansion in the city of England (London, yes he is ✨ RICH RICH ✨)And mostly spends his time in the city with his dwarves and his two nephews Fili and Kili.

And lastly...

Frodo Baggins: Frodo is reincarnated as Bilbo's nephew (again) and also as a young artist (singer). He would record and post videos of himself singing and playing with his guitar, Bilbo supports him and would buy frodo some of the equipment that he needed for his channel and his future career. But he's always busy helping his uncle around the house, like grabbing packages, doing chores and all that. But frodo doesn't mind it at all, his parents died in the car accident and bilbo took him in when frodo was 13 years old. He raised him and sent him to the best schools but made sure not to pressure the poor boy too hard and gave him the support that he needs.

Frodo is still friends with sam in their new life, where Sam works as a producer for frodo's songs and also he oftenly visits frodo all the time because they live near each other (it's a 20 minute walk to frodo's house but Sam rides a bike so it only takes about 10 minutes). Frodo and Sam are 'Secretly' dating, they're still trying to hide their relationship from the public and Bilbo, but he already knows about their relationship.

I hope you all enjoyed this, I will be making a short story of their interactions maybe later, but we'll see. Anyway, have a nice rest or day and I'll see you guys next time, Bye!~

And also before I end this, just wanted to say that all of the characters got reincarnated as humans and have no memory of their past life :)

[mysticstarlightduck]

Q&A QUESTION!

Firstly: Love your cast from Supernova Initiative.

Secondly, and this is my classic thing that I ask everyone: What's up with the food in your WIP? What do people eat? How do they get food? How is it shaped by the cultures?

(I love food and geopolitics, so this is my life. I'm sorry. I hope this isn't too much XDDDD)

Hii!! Thank you so much for the ask, @amaiguri!!! And don't worry, this isn't too much at all!!! I adore these kinds of questions and I myself love creating intricate details for my WIPs' cultures, politics, and worlds (and I love rambling about those details lmao)!

Also, I'm super glad you liked the cast of this WIP! If you want to ask something about the team or about any particular character, you're also more than welcome (and encouraged) to!

So let's get to it!

What's up with the food in your WIP? What do people eat? How do they get food? How is it shaped by the cultures?

Man, this is such an AMAZING question! I love it!

There are so many different planets and cultures in this WIP and thus there are many different kinds of food/diets as well, many being specific to certain settings and to the biology of different alien species! Let's go over some of the three main ones!

In Cethea III, which is a downtrodden mining settlement that is also one of the most crime-ridden places in the galaxy, abundance is not something that is a part of the day-to-day lives of most of that moon's inhabitants. Most food there comes from cheap, greasy diners or shady restaurants scattered around the settlements, though miners often receive weekly packets of rations from the mining companies they work for (though those rations are awfully tasteless and are more of a "last resort" for many).

As for what are the most common dishes in Cethea III:

Dried fish stick sandwiches and hot chocolate made with milk powder (this is the favorite dish of the main trio of this story - Jack, Deimos, and Cassie - as it was an affordable and tasty meal that was also a very good source of energy).

Fried pocked cheese tarts (a common snack present in most of the many greasy diners in the settlements, these tarts often come in considerable portions, packaged in a simple cardboard box).

Prairie rodent roast (the dusty, desert-like prairies of this moon are crawling with packs of medium-sized, hare-looking rodents that are often hunted by the population as a free source of game meat for roasts and stews. Some people also dry the rodent meat to make it last for longer and to make "beef jerky" out of it)

Glow-Slug Pudding (by far the most... concerning and rather disgusting dish in this moon's culinary culture, is an expensive dessert enjoyed in some of the few more high-brow and "fancy" establishments of this moon. The appearance of this pudding depends on the color of the slugs used in its mix, often having a glowing, neon look to it in various shades of purple, pink, and deep blue. Some of these puddings are cooked and served cold, but some versions of it are raw and include living slugs- the latter being even more expensive and considered a delicacy. Most of the main cast of this book has never tasted this dessert and even now that they can afford it they consider it far too disgusting to be edible. And honestly, I think they're right lol)

In Ivion, which is a giant ice planet that Cethea III orbits, the cities sprawl underground, and are vast places built out of pitch-black stone. The original inhabitants of this planet, the Zatrian people, have a large carnivore diet - while they technically are omnivores, their diets require a much larger protein intake than that of other humanoid species. They are skilled hunters, and many Zatrians have evolved to have keener eyesight and hearing in order to be able to track their gigantic prey fast without risking prolonged exposure to the cold of the planet's surface, making them even deadlier at marksmanship.

The most common dishes in Ivion:

Intricate, meat-based dishes, with strong condiments and often a vibrant appearance. Those dishes vary from different kinds of stews, roasts, soups, and fillets, often being served extremely hot, and fresh from the oven. A single portion of those dishes is often so vast/abundant that it can feed at least a dozen people with ease.

Boiling Frostberry (a common drink that has a staple deep blue color with glittery swirls. It has a sweet yet tangy taste and as the name implies is typically to be drunk hot. This juice/beverage can both be served as a celebratory drink as well as a day-to-day beverage for all walks of life and is known for providing an astounding amount of warmth, as the berries have a capability to warm the body from within and are impossible to freeze)

Burrow-Wyrm Eggs (often harvested from Burrow-Wyrm nests during a specific season of the year - Burrow-Wyrms have hundreds of giant eggs per mating season, and the Zatrians often only poach around 5-10 eggs or so per year - these eggs are boiled then roasted over a fire with a strongly spicy pepper. Reserved for special occasions, those astoundingly large eggs (they're as big as two basketballs stacked onto each other), are a part of the traditional Zatrian diets and are only consumed in new-years festivals and coming-of-age ceremonies)

In Stryxus, the bustling dwarf planet known for its sprawling tropical fungal forests and also for being the home to some of the most dangerous crime families in the whole Khosmonian Galaxies has many different cultures that cohabitate within its sandy-colored cities, thus having many different culinary traditions spread evenly throughout the small planet.

The most common dishes on this dwarf planet:

A lot of the dishes on this planet are mushroom or fungi-based, as is to be expected of a dwarf planet that contains the largest fungal forests in the system. Mushrooms of all kinds are used in a variety of dishes, ranging from savory salads, roasts, barbecues, and even sandwiches, serving as the main source of protein for the population of this planet, both rich and poor. Sweet fungi are also a common ingredient for local desserts, especially cupcakes, puddings, and some varieties of ice cream.

This planet is also known for its sprawling cantinas and saloons, having some of the most varied alcoholic beverages, from common drinks like wine, beers, and specific brands of whiskey, to rarer, more exotic drinks that are only found and brewed on this planet, often using some rare fungi as a basis for the fermentation process, which grants theses neon colored, bubbling drinks an extremely rare taste and a varied range of appearances.

Swamp Fowls are abundant in Stryxus, and thus are a common ingredient for roasted sticks and nugget-like delicacies enjoyed by both young and old in the planet's pubs and restaurants.

I hope you enjoy the answer! Once more, thanks for the ask, and feel free to ask many more if you so wish to!

Supernova Initiative Taglist (-/+): @ray-writes-n-shit, @sarandipitywrites, @lassiesandiego, @smol-feralgremlin, @kaylinalexanderbooks,

@diabolical-blue @oh-no-another-idea

@cakeinthevoid, @clairelsonao3, @sleepy-night-child

@thepeculiarbird

@the-golden-comet, @urnumber1star, @ominous-feychild

@finickyfelix, @lyutenw, @elshell, @thecomfywriter

Let me know if you'd like to be added!

[d-druxy]

I originally put this in the tags but it got so long that I decided to just put it here instead:

This is such a difficult vote bc to me these games rank very differently depending on the criteria you put them against. I voted DA2 bc its the game I feel most at home at and also the one I think the most about. I didnt expect to love Hawke as much as I did and that really endeared them towards me. Varric is also an all time favorite guy of mine and I just generally deeply care for this little family of misfits and their bonds to each other.

Playing it however.. I had fun and its a servicable game, dont get me wrong, but I didnt love playing it. I do like that we see some actual art direction and exploration in da2 It has its own visual identity which DAO for all it strengths lacks imo.

I don't even mind that we're restricted to kirkwall. I think limiting a game towards an area can definitely be beneficial. But the game feels rushed and it really shows at times (the same three set pieces to battle some thugs in) I do think da2s combat has a very snappy look to it and feels the best to me in this game (at least animation wise). Especially the Rogue looks super fun jumping and teleporting all over the place (im so glad for mods bc the champions rogue armors color pallette is TERRIBLE). But even combat isnt flawless and I think it took a bit of a hit mechanics wise, at least when it comes to the ability trees. (tbf mechanics are never my speciality so thats all im gonna say about it)

As a whole package however?.... It will always be DAO. Im forever in love with the dwarf commoner origin and the rpg elements are heavy in this game, it's so fun. Theres so much to do and at least for this game it really makes you feel like your choices matter. The replayability is great

The differences between the origins are my favorite part and while I couldnt bring myself to try a different one out yet, its just great that the option is there and it allows for the creation of a variety of characters. It's such a solid base to play around with. The combat in this game feels a bit outdated and clunky to me but its straightforward and it works. (I also think it allows you more freedom to explore different builds? but again thats not something I really dabble in).

I will say; I wish that DAO had a stronger art direction in game. Its very much giving the same old classic fantasy and it just doesnt have a strong visual identity to call its own. I also think the graphics can be rough, a lot of the npcs look the same but honestly I can forgive it plus mods are always an option.

This is also the only DA game where I'm not super mad about how the dwarfs look (they have VERY long arms but I can deal. I exclude DA2 from this discussion tho bc we dont get to create/play as a dwarf in that game and I dont recall seeing any female dwarfs either(?)). There still is some sexual dysmorphism (especially in the concept art lmao) but its not nearly as bad as in DAI (< shudders).

Now.. DAI was my first Dragon Age Game. The glitz of it definitely impressed me back then and its still iconic in some regards.

But it didnt make me fall in love with Dragon Age as a whole. That would only happen once I played DAO and actually understood wtf was going on (years later after I tried playing DAI for the first time).

I think DAI is THE Dragon Age game when it comes to art design. It practically overflows with it. (Dear god the tarot cards aloneeee they're so fucking iconic!!). The visual identity of this game is SO strong and the environments are still super beautiful even now! They look distinct and really showcase the different parts of Dragon Ages world. I love the graphics despite the janky animations and even now i still think the way this game renders skin and certain fabrics is super pretty.

but the world feels super empty at times but there arent any real backgrounds for the Inquisitor (I actually missed the little info blurb for the inky you make gets, the first time around) but the rpg elements have been even more reduced but the races sexual dysmorphism in this game is atrocious (I hate the way the female dwarfs look in this fucking game) but some of the story decisions bloat dragon ages setting as a whole but the hairstyles in this game are soooo ugly. almost all of my Inkys have buzzcuts (< I jest but yeah) etc.. So my ranking of these games heavily depends on the part we base the ranking on. I love good art design and interesting visuals. I know a lot of people hate the out there- over the top fashion design in DAI and when I was younger I used to agree. But now?? HOW FUN! HOW INTERESTING!! I love that I can tell the historical fashion influences! I love how different orlais feels from ferelden! I can tell the people who designed those outfits enjoyed themselves!! And for that alone I will always love DAI. (doesnt help that im just unsure what I want my Inquisitor to be personality wise. Both DAO and DA2 give you such solid bases to build upon)

But I dont love it as much as either DA2 or DAO in a lot of other regards.

DAO is the strongest as a whole experience. DA2s cast is so memorable and beloved. My brain loves to chew on Hawke and their story and its fun how much youre able to interpret into it since its by an unreliable narrator. I also think the rival vs friendly mechanic for your companions was and interesting idea DAI is a beautiful game. I love the graphics and its art. The cast is still lovable but playing it feels like such a big undertaking and I will forever hate what they did to the female dwarfs in this game

[oneseason]

Combing through seasons 1 through 3

I went through episode summaries on Wikipedia and Real Jims videos on YouTube.

Season 1

Season 1 has a lot of charm, but I think it's ultimately too incongruent with the rest of the show.

Homer's Odyssey is an interesting option, as it gets very dark with the suicidal ideation, and provides back story for how Homer got his improbable job, but that's not something that I think needs explanation. Other episodes are indisputably classic, but I don't think they're essential to what the show would become.

Season 2

Season two has some strong considerations.

The season premiere, Bart Gets an F, is a great example of Bart struggling. I think the character is at his best when he tilts more towards being a kid who is struggling, who gets bullied, who can't stay out of trouble, and is trying to understand how to navigate the world. Some of the darkest years of the Simpsons lean on into Bart being "cool" and it's really painful to me. Bart Gets an F is absolutely a vibe that I want to include, but I think it's much better captured by episodes like New Kid on the Block or Bart Sells His Soul. Even Bart vs. Thanksgiving a couple episodes later might be a stronger option.

The Way We Was is one of, if not the first, flashback episode. I want to include one, even though they're generally not the strongest, but I'm leaning towards And Maggie Makes Three, although I might need to rewatch to get a good sense how how good these episodes actually are, both overall and compared to each other.

There is a LOT of Mr Burns in Season 2, and I love that. I want Mr Burns to be a big part of my arc, but I'm not sure how much space I can really dedicate to him. I'm tentatively set on Last Exit to Springfield, Flying Hellfish, and Who Shot Mr Burns as a kind of Burns Trilogy. I think he's at his best as an intermittent character, and I don't think any of his Season 2 episodes touch those, and that's not even counting Rosebud, which will be really hard to pass up.

A brief aside on the Mr Burns arc

I think I really like the idea of Mr Burns getting his first starting role in Last Exit to Springfield. He just exists as the boss, and Homer only interacts with him because he falls into his union position.

Flying Hellfish then makes his connection to the Simpsons personal, and Who Shot Mr Burns turns the town against him.

Very roughly it's

Mr Burns vs his workers

Mr Burns vs Abe / The Simpsons

Mr Burns vs the Town

I like the idea of presenting him more as an overarching villain, and less personal to the Simpsons.

An aside within the aside, I'm very skeptical that I'll use any Sideshow Bob episodes. Cape Feare is the creme de la creme, but I feel his episodes are too sequential, and too many of the entries are weak to bother with it. I expect some people would find this an inexcusable, glaring omission, but he pales in comparison to Mr Burns as THE antagonist.

Back to Season 2

Lisa's Substitute. This is the first episode in the show that feels like a must include. I'm not 100% it will fit in, but it would be tough to pass up. It's an incredibly strong episode, makes a strong statement on who Lisa is and how she fits into her family and Springfield, and has a fun b-plot that helps build up the world of Springfield Elementary. I'm not sure there's a better episode to establish Lisa early on (early in my season that is), and I love the symmetry of having this heartbreaking episodes early, and wrapping up Lisa's arc with Summer of 4 ft. 2 as my quasi-series finale. Plus, Sam Etic guest stars.

Season 3

The final phase of "early" Simpsons, where we're on the cusp of greatness. We're so close, but we're not quite in the definitive era.

Homer Defined isn't my favourite episode (I think it was heavily in Global's syndication package for a while), but does a strong job of establishing the Nuclear Plant, and having a sad sack Bart B-plot. This is very weak contention for my series premiere.

Flaming Moe's, Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk [sic], Radio Bart, and Homer at Bat are all classic, solid memorable episodes that don't quite feel essential. I could see any of them filling a slot, but I'm not sure any of them are needed.

Colonel Homer is the first Marge/Homer marriage troubles episode that I've seriously considered. I definitely want at least one (I think Secrets of a Successful Marriage is my frontrunner right now) and the songs are 10/10, but I don't think Marge is nearly fleshed out enough in this episode to deliver on that theme.

Season 1 to 3 Wrap-Up

I've got one very strong candidate in Lisa's Substitute, a couple considerations for role players, and a handful of episodes on hand for filler. Season 4 is where this is gonna get tough.

[red-dragon-archfiend]

Kirby Star Allies is one of, if not my absolute favorite Kirby games, and I recognize while it's on paper one of the weaker entries in the core series, it appeals to me personally on multiple levels and I think I should revisit it more

[the-flowing-river]

Okay, so, the plot of the Tv show wich exists in my mind thickens. Tl:dr, the main characters are sailing out to the new world, and while there, decide to form a Company, their members are freya Nocturne, a nun who's monastery burned down. She's spent her whole life amongst religious people, can be a bit socially awkward, and is undeniably the boss. Her goal is to raise enough money to fix the monastery. Did i mention she likes knives? She loves knives, and took up fencing as a hobby, mickan lyokka, a hunter who accidentally hunted a deer wich apparently belonged to a baron. He's good with animals, and can forage a meal together, and is really good with a bow. He's also got a hobby of accidentally angering people. (See also, accidentally hunting a deer wich belonged to a baron), last, but the very opposite of least, there's ryke Elliot. A mercenary who was betrayed, and killed* with a real hate for the traitors. When he heard they were crossing the sea, he promptly decided they'd die in the new world , also called the hintersland. He's good with blunt weapons, wich reflects his personality quite well. He's a big man, who likes to do woodworking, and cook. He can make everything taste good, even the stuff that's not made to taste good, but more so to last long. He's also a perfectionist.

So, these three people get on a boat and travel to the hintersland, where they arrive at Eldors landing. It's here they get their first ever job, to kill some wolves that have been plagueing the local farmers for ages. They kill the wolves, and the farmers pay them. Later that evening, when they are about to go to bed in the city inn, an admittedly pretty okay if a bit overpriced place called the satin mermaid, the final main character of season 1 is introduced, a thief called grif, nicknamed "the shadow" because thats all you'll see before he stole your shit. He's spent a vast part of his life with criminals, until he got caught, and went here to not be killed, and he can talk a big game, and back it up too. He joins the company, called the fallen angels, and more episodic afventures take place for a bit. Stuff like "deliver this package, kill these people, our miners fell ill and Ryke's an able-bodies strong man, please work for us," and at a certain point it is discovered that grif is a trans man. They react very cool about it.

However, at the end of season one, at the end of the third to last episode, they just completed a task, wich is best summarized as "we needed to deliver an ancient Holy text, so we did" and are going to take a break at a farmers house, where they've been once before. They typically sleep in the hay, but this time, dreams of sleep and a hearty stew, courtesy of the farmers niece, or perhaps wife, are brutally shattered, when they find the farm burned down, and a note that says "come meet me at the seventh mercurial, bring the money," and Grif knows that the seventh mercurial is a beach a bit to the southwest, frequently used for illegal trades, or other questionable business. so, our main characters being the Rational People they are, go to the beach, but do not approach right away. They see that it's a slave trade, wich, while not illegal, is highly frowned upon, and throughout the season, hints have been dropped that it will soon be illegal, within the hintersland at the least. So, they walk in, and immediately, all the slave traders have their weapons drawn. There's thirteen of them, and only four of our heroes, so freya keeps a calm head, and says that they're here to buy. The trader asks if they're here for Opterin, and they nod. He asks why opterin didn't come himself and they scoff and say that he's got more important things to do. The trader shrugs, and says he doesn't care as long as he gets his 300 gold pieces. The company only has 90, but the trader doesn't need to know that. They give him the 90, and say that the rest will be delivered when the product (a girl, who's very scared, and actively weeping. She's blonde, and has long, braided hair.) is safe and sound. The trader is fine with it. So, they leave, and after a few kilometer, they untie the girl, and basically tell her, "hey, you're safe." She thanks them, tells them she's called marietta, and about an uncle. They deliver her to said uncle in gironta, a city wich is known for the incredible technological advancements (such as: really good lenses, cool ass telescopes (portable), and new medicine) and they are encouraged by the uncle to stay a night, take a significant reward, and to come there every time they're in the city. Mickan and marietta start a bit of a relationship, and Season 1 ends with everyone being content.

Season 2 begins with them leaving, it's been a week, and they get back to adventuring. They mess with some of Opterin's plans, but nothing substantial. It does set him up as an antagonist though. This is also the season in wich the gladiator fights first occur, when they do one for some money to buy horses. Nothing much happens for the rest of the season, just more stuff similar to s1, though marietta and greg appear a bunch of times throughout. There's only three things i really want to mention. The first is in the seventh episode of s2, they find a dead man. This man had some important documents, adressed to the viceroy. So, they go to eldors landing, and deliver the documents to the viceroy. This is a man who has been whispered about in some of the episodes, especially how much power he seems to exude, and he does not disappoint. He takes the documents, asks where they got them, standard fare. The second is the tenth episode, in wich they meet a caravan of refugee natives. They show our main characters that there is a steep price to all of the things we saw so far, and they are a truly pitiable sight. They share food with the caravan, and stay with them for a night. And while it's not okay, it's okay for now, as stories are swapped, both cultural, and personal, and everyone gains resolve to help the people who got displaced. It takes a very long time, (2 episodes.) but eventually, they find a place where they can live, a small town called hrok's crossing. It's a tiny place, and the newcomers are welcomed by everyone there.

The final thing is the season 2 finale. You see, they are in a city. Hrok's crossing, actually, and they overhear two people talkimg about one hirtima. This is a name ryke knows well. You see, that was the leader of the people who betrayed him. So, they follow the people, eventually getting to a ruin, in wich, the traitors have a base. There's eight of them there, and they attack. It was a long fight, and eventually our heroes win. But at a very high cost. Ryke is dead, as is Grif. Mickan is alive, but is wounded bad enough that while he'll survive, he can't keep doing this. So, Freya tosses the bodies of the traitors in the latrines, places grif and Rykes corpses in such a way that they are difficult to see, and always face the sunrise, and basically carries mickan to marietta's house, wich is three whole days worth of travel away. All the while, they are alone. She breaks down multiple times, before finally arriving. She asks if they can stay a while, and while she doesn't recover, she takes a break to process the loss and grieve. The uncle says that that's fine. He'd love to have them. And season two ends there, with most of the company either dead, or too wounded to do anything. Between seasons one and two, there was maybe a week (in-story) between seasons 2 and 3, there is a year.

I'm currently playing a game, wich I enjoy immensely, and some of the quests would adapt insanely well into a long form TV show, such as the "taken" quest, in wich you come across a ruined farm, and need to save the people who lived there from slavery.

[spmcomic]

[bursts down ur door] im here for the dvd commentary ask meme, tell me abt this >:]: The song was meant to be her magnum opus, but upon facing the reality of the sight, how could she ever do it justice? Lazarus paused. I guess I never will, the voices mused together. It stood, on the hill, for a long moment. The packages on its back pushed its knife-legs into the soft ground, so much softer than it was at home. (man, tumblr really dont let u format asks huh)

The moonlight…

Something was wrong. What was it?

There should be three moons, the voices whispered together.

Neima hunched over her stone in the dead of night, pausing every few moments to turn her head up and examine the moons. Their light played off each other: sturdy bronze, icy blue-white, and airy reflective gray between the two. She jabbed her quill against the rock, crumpling the tip. With a snarl she tossed it away, grabbing yet another out of her cup. She dunked the end of it in her ink and very nearly chewed on the tip while she contemplated the three heavenly bodies. Ink dripped off her nose, leaving her whiskers quivering in the multicolored light.

How could you translate such a sight into music? The moons hung serenely in the sky, blotting out even the stars in such a wide circle. The way the colors lit up the long strands of dead grass, bounced off her slate, twinkled at the end of the quill… Neima’s brow furrowed and her ears drew back. She shuffled her stiff feet, trying to force some feeling back into them. They would be out of phase again soon. The next collection like this wouldn’t come around for another two years. She had to make her decision. Bronze, and white, and blue, and gray… The cold and the stillness and the crisp smell of the dew collecting on the rough stones. What notes brought them to mind? What might another instrument accomplish that her trumpet could not?

The song was meant to be her magnum opus, but upon facing the reality of the sight, how could she ever do it justice?

Lazarus paused. I guess I never will, the voices mused together. It stood, on the hill, for a long moment. The packages on its back pushed its knife-legs into the soft ground, so much softer than it was at home.

It could never get home, could it? From the very beginning… the Artificers had total control over Lazarus’ fate, and had ensured it was trapped forever. The voices never had a chance. Even if Lazarus did get home, the voices had been gathered from across time, from across the countries and tribes and regions. Where could Ishani fit, in this new world? Where would Timur? Bryagh? Kai? They had never heard of some of the ideas the other voices shared- the Mayors- the quills- the games- the armored mounts-

-

(from theia and gaia)

god. this whole bit. i think this was one of the first strong images i had for the entire fic, honestly. i wanted to evoke that artist's struggle to capture your own mind, with neima. because she is an artist- all of the people within lazarus were full, thinking, feeling individuals with their own lives and goals and inner worlds. the snippets we'd seen up until this point conveyed that, of course, but this one was… vivid, personal, and i think it's a fear that a lot of artists struggle with. the fear that you won't get to make what you wanted to make, you won't get to say what you wanted to say, before you die. and all of the leporids on douma face that lack of closure.

neima is one of the two or three souls that is specifically named during arc 5 of the comic, so i wanted to make sure she had at least one prominent appearance in theia and gaia. she's not the only artist in lazarus of course, and all of the souls are very important within the core, but neima is one of those personalities that easily bubbles to the top in this kind of environment. bryagh and ishani already get a lot of the limelight in this fic, so i wanted to touch on a few other characters within the crowd and make sure they're just as involved in lazarus' turning points as the two folk heroes.

so neima gets a moment of both lost hope and new companionship and awareness, a bit of a rebirth for lazarus. she brings lazarus to its senses with her lost dream, the group realizes their similarities and differences, and the implications of those differences, but they also all get to figure out what they want to do next as a group. all of them have lost dreams. all of prolagus will become lost. again, it's that symbolic lack of closure for their whole species coming to the forefront here.

i hope that scenes like this drive home the tragedy and downright horror of the pixls' situation. not only were their lives taken away, but everyting they wanted to DO with those lives. all the things they never achieved because they never got the chance. as an artist, this idea is terrifying to me. what happens if i hesitate at a critical moment? what happens if i die before i get to finish my project? neima doesn't entirely die, but she is permanently unable to pursue her art after being taken by the artificers.

i think specifically i wanted the moonlight to be emphasized here because moons are so… specific to planets. mars has entirely different moons than earth- mercury and venus, no moons at all. from the "surface" of a planet like saturn or jupiter, the moons must also just look like a dozen tiny dots. what about the ring of saturn? the sky is always a fantastic way to drive home an alien environment especially in a sci-fi story.

in this case, and i do always love perspective reversals, the familiarity is actually with the more alien planet to us. because the leporids might be different from us / the artificers, but they are still people and they still had a home that was familiar to them. in that sense, i wanted the artificers, the more humanoid species, to have the more familiar and friendly environment. the ground is softer, the weather is more mild, they only have one large moon on this world.

haha man it's hard to gush when i'm put on the spot like this. i feel like i'm out of things to say, but i have a million more things to talk about.

i remember all the editing this fic went through, but this scene is actually one of the ones that didn't change much between the three-ish drafts. it was always going to be the midpoint of the fic, the point where lazarus finishes processing its grief and is able to snap out of the haze the artificers cast on it due to this vivid (and very relatable, to the whole crowd within the robot) memory. it's the point where lazarus realizes that it's going to have to change tactics if it wants to make any kind of difference in its situation. it exists in the present rather than the past now. its rebellion takes on a more subtle form. and now, with these memories settled and connections made, it's in a position where it can learn the system and make allies before it attempts to overthrow the artificers' program.

thank you for asking about this. there's so much thought and work that went into theia and gaia that got left unsaid because it was a side project for the comic.

[glassprism]

What do you think is the line between “acting” and “interpretation”? In your reviews, it’s a pattern that you highly praise people with unique and new interpretations or take on their characters that adds more to the narrative without contradicting it. But is there a case where you had an actor with really great interpretation of a character but had slightly over the top or stiff acting? Or is there an actor with a bit stale take but phenomenal expression and delivery? Which is your preference?

"Interpretation" is the actor's idea of what their character is like, "acting" is how they execute it. Their "interpretation" is a bit like the theme of a book - it's the overall idea that should lay the foundations of what they're doing - while their "acting" is like the actual text that they use to demonstrate it. Obviously there's a lot of overlap between the two, but that's how I'd define it.

I've definitely seen both cases of what you're describing. For actors with great interpretation but didn't quite deliver in the acting, I tend to think of, say, Meredith Braun, Lauri Brons, and Meghan Picerno in the World Tour. They all had a really unique take on the role (Braun was very childish but then made extreme growth at the end; Lauri Brons was twitchy, disturbed, with a backbone of steel; Picerno was very strong-willed, basically read to fight), but didn't quite deliver on the acting (Braun occasionally came off, um, murderous; Brons was sometimes pretty over-the-top and "stage'y"; Picerno was kind of stiff in her scenes).

As for actors who had a somewhat conventional take but great acting, first names that come to mind are Sofia Escobar, Valerie Link, and Holly-Anne Hull. A lot of them pop to mind because I tend to compare them to a principal or alternate Christine at the time - for Escobar it's Anna O'Byrne, for Link it's Lauri Brons, and for Holly-Anne Hull it's Anouk van Laake. All three of the names above went for the more usual interpretation of Christine as a naive, sweet ingenue, but they really delivered on the acting - both Escobar and Link were detailed and nuanced and all their movements and expressions just "flowed" naturally, Holly-Anne Hull had a ton of energy.

And as for what I prefer, going off my own favorites list, I do seem to prefer the Christines who have great acting even if their interpretation is not that extraordinary (and it also helps if they have good vocals - that definitely pushed Sofia Escobar and Valerie Link into the second highest group for me). I don't expect every actress to reinvent the wheel or whatever, and if they are a solid package throughout - good interpretation, good acting, good vocals - then that ranks higher to me than if they're really strong in one area but weaker in another, you know?

That being said, what I'll say is that the Christines with the more unusual interpretations are the ones I'm thinking about for much longer after the show. Like, Meredith Braun, Lauri Brons, Meghan Picerno, I was ruminating on their Christines for days after watching them. So in terms of ranking, the more "well-rounded" Christines are higher, but in terms of staying on my mind, the more "imperfect" Christines definitely linger longer!

[kaaytea]

Yaku Morisuke x reader

Summary: Yaku insisted that he didn't need your help, but the sound of glass breaking over the phone said otherwise.

Warnings: none

A/n: Yaku canonically has 2 little brothers now🥰 this is basically a gift for bug anon and @hikari-writes​ anyways enjoy mwah!!💖

----------------------------------------------------------

"Hi baby!" You happily chirped into the phone, "I'm excited for our date! It's been a while since we've gone on one."

There was a pause on the other end, you could hear shuffling and a few muffled giggles.

"Stop it you two! I'm sorry (y/n) but we're gonna have to postpone our date, my Aunt fell ill so my parents asked me to watch Yuji and Shiori While they go look after her. I'm really sorry I know how excited you were"

You let out a small laugh and shifted your phone to your other ear as you went to pick up your bag, "It's ok Mori, we can just reschedule for next weekend. How about I come over anyway? It sounds like you'll need the help."

"Ah you don't have to do that, I can usually handle them and I don't want you to-"

Yaku was cut off by the sound of a glass breaking followed by two voices

"ooooo Oniisan is gonna kill yooooou"

"No! He's gonna kill you because I didn't do it!"

Mori let out a tired sigh, "On second thought some help would be greatly appreciated."

"I'll be over in ten minutes, sit tight sweetie!"

<< --------------------------------------------------- >>

The Yaku family home wasn't too far from yours, being only a little over an eight-minute walk away. You'd been there plenty of times throughout the years after befriending Morisuke in junior high; your younger self would probably explode if they knew you'd end up dating that cute boy with pretty eyes and wavy, toffee hair who walked home the same way you did. The Yaku's basically became your second home at this point so helping Mori watch his little brothers wasn't that rare of an event.

You hopped up the steps to the humble house and knocked on the door, which swang open a few seconds after revealing a flustered Yaku Morisuke.

"Thank you for helping (y/n), I’m sorry.. this isn't exactly what I had in mind for us today," he said as you walked in, pressing a kiss to your cheek in the process.

"I don't mind helping you out Mori, sure it's not the same as a dinner date but we always have fun when watching the boys," you offered him a smile, which he returned, and followed him into the main room where you were immediately tackled by his brothers.

"(Y/n)-chan!" Yuji jumped up from his seat, abandoning the gaming controller he was holding leaving Shiori to win the game they were currently playing, and bounced over to you to hug your waist. Shiori followed closely behind his older brother and latched on to your waist as well.

"Hey you two!" You wrapped an arm around both boys and hugged them back, both of them looked up at you with big smiles.

They were looking more and more like Morisuke each time you saw them -which was understandable seeing as they're all brothers.

Yuji, the older of the two, shared the same toffee hair as his elder brother but Shiori's, while similar, was a few shades darker than Mori's. All three of them had the same chocolate-colored eyes and delicate freckles dusted on their cheeks though.

"Alright get off them, this might surprise you two but they need to do this thing called breathing," Yaku said from where he was leaning against the couch.

Both boys pulled away, Shiori lingering a little longer, and then dragged you over to the couch to play videogames with you.

Videogames were the most popular form of entertainment whenever you came to watch them. Yuji was scary good at games and almost always won when the four of you played; he could honestly rival Kenma's abilities.

Because there were only three controllers Shiori always sat on your lap so the both of you could take turns, but you had a sneaking suspicion it was because he was a little more attached to you and liked to be near you.

"Are you sure you don't want to play (y/n)-chan?" Shiori looked up at you from his spot on your lap with an innocent look.

"I'm sure Shi, I'm having much more fun watching you play," you leaned closer to him and whispered," Plus, I can help you beat your brothers this way."

He grinned at you and looked forward again to the tv. It seemed as though today's game of choice was Smash Bros Ultimate.

The three brothers started the game with Yuji instantly knocking Mori off the map resulting in him to yell out in frustration. Yaku could be very petty when he wanted so he spent most of the game targeting Yuji, leaving Shiori to sit safely on the sidelines. The game was coming to a close with Mori and Yuji both having one life left. Mori took a wild chance and ended up hitting Yuji off the map making the younger boy cry out in shock. That's when you guided Shiori over to Mori's character and won the match.

"No fair! (y/n)-chan helped you Shiori!" Yuji whined.

"I have no idea what you mean Yuji," you gave him a smile as he pouted at you; he took gaming very seriously.

"Ok ok, stop attacking (y/n) and Shi, why don't we go outside for a bit? The both of you have been in here playing games all day," Yaku got up and turned off the gaming console and tv then turned back to look at the two boys.

"Oooook," they both said before racing to the door. They pushed at each other in attempts to sabotage the other causing you to laugh at their antics. You were so engrossed in the younger boys race that you didn't notice Yaku standing in front of you until he flicked your head.

"You totally helped him win, didn't you" Mori stated with a playful glare.

You got up and pressed a kiss to his nose, "Maybe I did maybe I didn't. Why? Do you want me to help you win next time?" Mori blushed at your response then teasingly hit your shoulder.

<< --------------------------------------------------- >>

You and Yaku sat on the wooden porch together watching the younger boys kick around a soccer ball. Mori's arm was around your waist, his thumb occasionally rubbing soft circles into your hip.

"Niisan?" Shiori had diverged from Yuji and now stood in front of Mori and you, nervously fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

"What's up bud?"

"Can...can you teach me how to play volleyball?"

Mori honestly looked like he could cry when the words 'teach me to play volleyball' left his little brother’s mouth. He'd been hoping that at least one of his brothers would become interested in the sport and it seemed quiet Shiori would be the one.

Mori stood up with a grin on his face, "Sure Shi! Come on, we'll teach you how to receive first."

You smiled watching Shiori run after Morisuke; Yuji and Shiori really looked up to him, it's like they think he hung the stars in the sky himself.

"Yuji!" You called out. The boy looked up from where he was kicking around the soccer ball, "Wanna come help me make dinner?"

"Yeah!"

Yuji happily trailed after you to the kitchen, hopping around from foot to foot as he blabbered on about a Tv show.

You honestly didn't know where he got all his energy from, everyone else in his family was significantly less hyper; though, his cheery attitude was one of your favorite things about him.

"Alright Yuji, what should we make?"

He stopped his bouncing and brought a hand to his chin, his face scrunching up as he pondered his options.

"Ramen!"

You gave him a nod and searched through the cabinets for the noodle packets you were, oh so familiar with. You pulled out enough for four people, placing them on the counter. You then moved to the refrigerator -just eating the packaged noodles wouldn't be the healthiest, so you decided to put your own spin on it. After a quick once over of the fridge you pulled out some carrots, spinach, and a few eggs.

"Ok Kiddo, I'm giving you a really important job. I want you to wash the carrots and spinach, think you can do that for me?"

"Yep!" Yuji gathered the vegetables in his arms and brought them over to the sink to start his job. Once you were sure he was safe, you started looking around for a pot and cutting board. You'd been to this house so many times but if there was one room you weren't familiar with it was the kitchen. Yaku's mother always insisted that she had everything handled and for you to go enjoy your time with Morisuke.

"(y/n)-chan I'm done!" Yuji called over his shoulder. He had perfect timing as you had just found a pot big enough to cook the noodles in.

You walked over to the sink, pot in hand, and gave Yuji a pat on the head -he was absolutely beaming at your approval.

"looks good, I'm gonna start cutting the carrots, fill this pot a little over halfway and then we can start making the noodles," Yuji nodded up at you and started filled the pot while you started cutting the veggies.

You were fully concentrated on your task, you didn't even hear the backdoor open.

"Careful!" You looked over your shoulder to find Mori taking the filled pot from Yuji, the latter had a slight pout spread over his face.

Yaku placed the pot on the stove top and turned back to the younger boy, "Don't do that next time, alright? You could have gotten hurt...it's ok to ask for help when you need it."

Yuji nodded pitifully, he's eyes down casted on the floor in a mix of shame and embarrassment. Mori huffed and ruffled Yuji's hair making him perk up a bit, "I think (y/n) and I've get it handled from here buddy. Go play with Shi, we'll call you both when the foods done."

"Ok!" All previous sadness had left Yuji as he instantly reverted back to his happy self, he bounced out of the kitchen and in the direction of he and Shiori's shared room.

"Thank you for helping Yuji!" You called out. His head popped out from the side of the doorway with a large smile on his face.

"you're welcome (y/n)-chan!"

<< --------------------------------------------------- >>

After dinner and a few more rounds of Smash, Mori and you had tucked both boys into bed for the night.

You stretched your arms high into the air with a hum, "I should probably start walking home."

You felt Yaku latch onto your back, his chin resting on your shoulder and his strong arms pulling you into his chest.

"Nope you're staying here, I don't want you walking home this late."

You chuckled at him and leaned into his hold, he's always looking out for you.

"Ok...that means we're gonna go cuddle in your room, right?"

"Duh"

Being curled up with Mori was one of the best things on earth. Everything about the action was soft and warm; the embodiment of comfort.

"I love your brothers but they really are a handful."

"Try living with them," Yaku responded dryly.

You slapped his shoulder lightly causing him to chuckle at you.

You sighed, enjoying the feeling of Mori tracing random shapes on your back, and nuzzled further into his chest.

"How did Volleyball with Shiori go?"

"It was fun. He's not that bad of a receiver, though I think he'd make a better setter than a libero."

You hummed and placed a kiss on his jaw, "He does have the aspects of a good setter in him, liberos need to be a bit aggressive and crazy to throw themselves around and receive."

"Wow thanks babe," he deadpanned causing you to giggle at him.

"I loooove you~"

"Yeah, whatever you say," Yaku rolled his eyes then tickled your sides changing your giggles to full-on laughter. You shifted and twitch in feeble attempts to escape Yaku's grasp.

"OK OK IM SORRY, Y-YOU MADE YOUR POINT!!"

He stopped his attack and watched you with a soft look as you calmed down. That's when a sliver of light cut through the room like a knife making both You and Mori look towards the door.

"Oniisan...we heard a scary noise outside," Yuji stood in the doorway with Shiori behind him clinging to the back of his shirt.

Mori sat up, he may complain that his baby brothers were annoying but he still loved them with all his heart and couldn't stand to see them upset.

"Do you guys wanna stay with us tonight? (Y/n)-chan and I will make sure nothing scary comes to snatch you away"

Both boys nodded and rushed over to Yaku's bed; their brother was like a beacon of light and the bed a safe house, the childlike fear of standing in the dark room unprotected lapped at their minds.

You all had to squeeze to fit onto the bed but eventually, everyone got situated and relaxed. Both kids laid between you and Mori; Shiori was clinging to your waist with his face pressed into your stomach and Yuji was facing Mori hugging his arm.

Both Yuji and Shiori fell asleep instantly once in the comfort of You and Yaku.

You ran a hand through Shiori's wavy hair, you looked up to find Yaku watching you; he looked starstruck, an almost loopy smile on his face and a warm glow in his eyes. He reached over Yuji and Shiori and grabbed onto your free hand, his thumb ran up and down the back of it prompting you to close your eyes and start to drift off.

Everything was warm and cozy, nothing but the distant chirps of crickets and the soft breathing of the two sleeping boys filled your senses; the feeling of safety and protection evident in the air.

This single moment in time was better than any date Yaku could take you on.

[barbara-stanwyck-1907-1990]

Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film and television star, she was known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional for her strong, realistic screen presence. A favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra, she made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television.

Stanwyck got her start on the stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 at age 16 and within a few years was acting in plays. She was then cast in her first lead role in Burlesque (1927), becoming a Broadway star. Soon after that, Stanwyck obtained film roles and got her major break when Frank Capra chose her for his romantic drama Ladies of Leisure (1930), which led to additional lead roles.

In 1937 she had the title role in Stella Dallas and received her first Academy Award nomination for best actress. In 1941 she starred in two successful screwball comedies: Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper, and The Lady Eve with Henry Fonda. She received her second Academy Award nomination for Ball of Fire, and in recent decades The Lady Eve has come to be regarded as a romantic comedy classic with Stanwyck's performance called one of the best in American comedy.

By 1944, Stanwyck had become the highest-paid woman in the United States. She starred alongside Fred MacMurray in the seminal film noir Double Indemnity (1944), playing the smoldering wife who persuades MacMurray's insurance salesman to kill her husband. Described as one of the ultimate portrayals of villainy, it is widely thought that Stanwyck should have won the Academy Award for Best Actress rather than being just nominated. She received another Oscar nomination for her lead performance as an invalid wife overhearing her own murder plot in the thriller film noir, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). After she moved into television in the 1960s, she won three Emmy Awards – for The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961), the western series The Big Valley (1966), and miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).

She received an Honorary Oscar in 1982, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986 and was the recipient of several other honorary lifetime awards. She was ranked as the 11th greatest female star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute. An orphan at the age of four, and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked; one of her directors, Jacques Tourneur, said of Stanwyck, "She only lives for two things, and both of them are work."

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the fifth – and youngest – child of Catherine Ann (née McPhee) (1870-1911) and Byron E. Stevens (1872-1919), working-class parents. Her father, of English descent, was a native of Lanesville, Massachusetts, and her mother, of Scottish descent, was an immigrant from Sydney, Nova Scotia. When Ruby was four, her mother died of complications from a miscarriage after she was knocked off a moving streetcar by a drunk. Two weeks after the funeral, her father joined a work crew digging the Panama Canal and was never seen again by his family. Ruby and her older brother, Malcolm Byron (later nicknamed "By") Stevens, were raised by their eldest sister Laura Mildred, (later Mildred Smith) (1886–1931), who died of a heart attack at age 45. When Mildred got a job as a showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes (as many as four in a year), from which young Ruby often ran away.

"I knew that after fourteen I'd have to earn my own living, but I was willing to do that ... I've always been a little sorry for pampered people, and of course, they're 'very' sorry for me."

Ruby toured with Mildred during the summers of 1916 and 1917, and practiced her sister's routines backstage. Watching the movies of Pearl White, whom Ruby idolized, also influenced her drive to be a performer. At the age of 14, she dropped out of school, taking a package wrapping job at a Brooklyn department store. Ruby never attended high school, "although early biographical thumbnail sketches had her attending Brooklyn's famous Erasmus Hall High School."

Soon afterward, she took a filing job at the Brooklyn telephone office for $14 a week, which allowed her to become financially independent. She disliked the job; her real goal was to enter show business, even as her sister Mildred discouraged the idea. She then took a job cutting dress patterns for Vogue magazine, but customers complained about her work and she was fired. Ruby's next job was as a typist for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company; work she reportedly enjoyed, however her continuing ambition was in show business, and her sister finally gave up trying to dissuade her.

In 1923, a few months before her 16th birthday, Ruby auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a nightclub over the Strand Theatre in Times Square. A few months later, she obtained a job as a dancer in the 1922 and 1923 seasons of the Ziegfeld Follies, dancing at the New Amsterdam Theater. "I just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat", Stanwyck said. For the next several years, she worked as a chorus girl, performing from midnight to seven a.m. at nightclubs owned by Texas Guinan. She also occasionally served as a dance instructor at a speakeasy for gays and lesbians owned by Guinan. One of her good friends during those years was pianist Oscar Levant, who described her as being "wary of sophisticates and phonies."

Billy LaHiff, who owned a popular pub frequented by showpeople, introduced Ruby in 1926 to impresario Willard Mack. Mack was casting his play The Noose, and LaHiff suggested that the part of the chorus girl be played by a real one. Mack agreed, and after a successful audition gave the part to Ruby. She co-starred with Rex Cherryman and Wilfred Lucas. As initially staged, the play was not a success. In an effort to improve it, Mack decided to expand Ruby's part to include more pathos. The Noose re-opened on October 20, 1926, and became one of the most successful plays of the season, running on Broadway for nine months and 197 performances. At the suggestion of David Belasco, Ruby changed her name to Barbara Stanwyck by combining the first name from the play Barbara Frietchie with the last name of the actress in the play, Jane Stanwyck; both were found on a 1906 theater program.

Stanwyck became a Broadway star soon afterward, when she was cast in her first leading role in Burlesque (1927). She received rave reviews, and it was a huge hit. Film actor Pat O'Brien would later say on a 1960s talk show, "The greatest Broadway show I ever saw was a play in the 1920s called 'Burlesque'." Arthur Hopkins described in his autobiography To a Lonely Boy, how he came to cast Stanwyck:

After some search for the girl, I interviewed a nightclub dancer who had just scored in a small emotional part in a play that did not run [The Noose]. She seemed to have the quality I wanted, a sort of rough poignancy. She at once displayed more sensitive, easily expressed emotion than I had encountered since Pauline Lord. She and Skelly were the perfect team, and they made the play a great success. I had great plans for her, but the Hollywood offers kept coming. There was no competing with them. She became a picture star. She is Barbara Stanwyck.

He also called Stanwyck "The greatest natural actress of our time", noting with sadness, "One of the theater's great potential actresses was embalmed in celluloid."

Around this time, Stanwyck was given a screen test by producer Bob Kane for his upcoming 1927 silent film Broadway Nights. She lost the lead role because she could not cry in the screen test, but was given a minor part as a fan dancer. This was Stanwyck's first film appearance.

While playing in Burlesque, Stanwyck was introduced to her future husband, actor Frank Fay, by Oscar Levant. Stanwyck and Fay were married on August 26, 1928, and soon moved to Hollywood.

Stanwyck's first sound film was The Locked Door (1929), followed by Mexicali Rose, released in the same year. Neither film was successful; nonetheless, Frank Capra chose Stanwyck for his film Ladies of Leisure (1930). Her work in that production established an enduring friendship with the director and led to future roles in his films. Other prominent roles followed, among them as a nurse who saves two little girls from being gradually starved to death by Clark Gable's vicious character in Night Nurse (1931). In Edna Ferber's novel brought to screen by William Wellman, she portrays small town teacher and valiant Midwest farm woman Selena in So Big! (1932). She followed with a performance as an ambitious woman "sleeping" her way to the top from "the wrong side of the tracks" in Baby Face (1933), a controversial pre-Code classic. In The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), another controversial pre-Code film by director Capra, Stanwyck portrays an idealistic Christian caught behind the lines of Chinese civil war kidnapped by warlord Nils Asther. A flop at the time, containing "mysterious-East mumbo jumbo", the lavish film is "dark stuff, and its difficult to imagine another actress handling this ... philosophical conversion as fearlessly as Ms. Stanwyck does. She doesn't make heavy weather of it."

In Stella Dallas (1937) she plays the self-sacrificing title character who eventually allows her teenage daughter to live a better life somewhere else. She landed her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress when she was able to portray her character as vulgar, yet sympathetic as required by the movie. Next, she played Molly Monahan in Union Pacific (1939) with Joel McCrea. Stanwyck was reportedly one of the many actresses considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), although she did not receive a screen test. In Meet John Doe she plays an ambitious newspaperwoman with Gary Cooper (1941).

In Preston Sturges's romantic comedy The Lady Eve (1941), she plays a slinky, sophisticated con-woman who falls for her intended victim, the guileless, wealthy snake-collector and scientist Henry Fonda, she "gives off an erotic charge that would straighten a boa constrictor." Film critic David Thomson described Stanwyck as "giving one of the best American comedy performances", and its reviewed as brilliantly versatile in "her bravura double performance" by The Guardian. The Lady Eve is among the top 100 movies of all time on Time and Entertainment Weekly's lists, and is considered to be both a great comedy and a great romantic film with its placement at #55 on the AFI's 100 Years ...100 Laughs list and #26 on its 100 Years ...100 Passions list.

Next, she was the extremely successful, independent doctor Helen Hunt in You Belong to Me (1941), also with Fonda. Stanwyck then played nightclub performer Sugerpuss O'Shea in the Howard Hawks directed, but Billy Wilder written comedy Ball of Fire (1941). In this update of the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs tale, she gives professor Gary Cooper a better understanding of "modern English" in the performance for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

In Double Indemnity, the seminal film noir thriller directed by Billy Wilder, she plays the sizzling, scheming wife/blonde tramp/"destiny in high heels" who lures an infatuated insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) into killing her husband. Stanwyck brings out the cruel nature of the "grim, unflinching murderess", marking her as the "most notorious femme" in the film noir genre. Her insolent, self-possessed wife is one of the screen's "definitive studies of villainy - and should (it is widely thought) have won the Oscar for Best Actress", not just been nominated. Double Indemnity is usually considered to be among the top 100 films of all time, though it did not win any of its seven Academy Award nominations. It is the #38 film of all time on the American Film Institute's list, as well as the #24 on its 100 Years ...100 Thrillers list and #84 on its 100 Years ...100 Passions list.

She plays the columnist caught up in white lies and a holiday romance in Christmas in Connecticut (1945). In 1946 she was "liquid nitrogen" as Martha, a manipulative murderess, costarring with Van Heflin and newcomer Kirk Douglas in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Stanwyck was also the vulnerable, invalid wife that overhears her own murder being plotted in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) and the doomed concert pianist in The Other Love (1947). In the latter film's soundtrack, the piano music is actually being performed by Ania Dorfmann, who drilled Stanwyck for three hours a day until the actress was able to synchronize the motion of her arms and hands to match the music's tempo, giving a convincing impression that it is Stanwyck playing the piano.

Pauline Kael, a longtime film critic for The New Yorker, admired the natural appearance of Stanwyck's acting style on screen, noting that she "seems to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera". In reference to the actress's film work during the early sound era, Kael observed that the "early talkies sentimentality...only emphasizes Stanwyck's remarkable modernism."

Many of her roles involve strong characters, yet Stanwyck was known for her accessibility and kindness to the backstage crew on any film set. She knew the names of their wives and children. Frank Capra said of Stanwyck: "She was destined to be beloved by all directors, actors, crews and extras. In a Hollywood popularity contest, she would win first prize, hands down." While working on 1954s Cattle Queen of Montana on location in Glacier National Park, she did some of her own stunts, including a swim in the icy lake.[49] A consummate professional, when aged 50, she performed a stunt in Forty Guns. Her character had to fall off her horse and, with her foot caught in the stirrup, be dragged by the galloping animal. This was so dangerous that the movie's professional stunt person refused to do it. Her professionalism on film sets led her to be named an Honorary Member of the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame.

William Holden and Stanwyck were longtime friends and when Stanwyck and Holden were presenting the Best Sound Oscar for 1977, he paused to pay a special tribute to her for saving his career when Holden was cast in the lead for Golden Boy (1939). After a series of unsteady daily performances, he was about to be fired, but Stanwyck staunchly defended him, successfully standing up to the film producers. Shortly after Holden's death, Stanwyck recalled the moment when receiving her honorary Oscar: "A few years ago, I stood on this stage with William Holden as a presenter. I loved him very much, and I miss him. He always wished that I would get an Oscar. And so, tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish."

As Stanwyck's film career declined during the 1950s, she moved to television. In 1958 she guest-starred in "Trail to Nowhere", an episode of the Western anthology series Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, portraying a wife who pursues, overpowers, and kills the man who murdered her husband. Later, in 1961, her drama series The Barbara Stanwyck Show was not a ratings success, but it earned her an Emmy Award. The show ran for a total of thirty-six episodes. She also guest-starred in this period on other television series, such as The Untouchables with Robert Stack and in four episodes of Wagon Train.

She stepped back into film for the 1964 Elvis Presley film Roustabout, in which she plays a carnival owner.

The western television series, The Big Valley, which was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1969, made her one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy. She was billed in the series' opening credits as "Miss Barbara Stanwyck" for her role as Victoria, the widowed matriarch of the wealthy Barkley family. In 1965, the plot of her 1940 movie Remember the Night was adapted and used to develop the teleplay for The Big Valley episode "Judgement in Heaven".

In 1983, Stanwyck earned her third Emmy for The Thorn Birds. In 1985 she made three guest appearances in the primetime soap opera Dynasty prior to the launch of its short-lived spin-off series, The Colbys, in which she starred alongside Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Katharine Ross. Unhappy with the experience, Stanwyck remained with the series for only the first season, and her role as "Constance Colby Patterson" would be her last. It was rumored Earl Hamner Jr., former producer of The Waltons, had initially wanted Stanwyck for the role of Angela Channing in the 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, and she turned it down, with the role going to her friend, Jane Wyman; when asked Hamner assured Wyman it was a rumor.

Stanwyck's retirement years were active, with charity work outside the limelight. In 1981, she was awakened in the middle of the night, inside her home in the exclusive Trousdale section of Beverly Hills, by an intruder, who first hit her on the head with his flashlight, then forced her into a closet while he robbed her of $40,000 in jewels.

The following year, in 1982, while filming The Thorn Birds, the inhalation of special-effects smoke on the set may have caused her to contract bronchitis, which was compounded by her cigarette habit; she was a smoker from the age of nine until four years before her death.

Stanwyck died on January 20, 1990, aged 82, of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She had indicated that she wanted no funeral service. In accordance with her wishes, her remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California, where she had made some of her western films.

[addershade]

A Semi-Stuctured Rant on Antishipping, Fujoshi Culture and the monetization of Homosexuality in Japanese and American Media

Antishippers are homophobic and it's bothering me. But also so are fujoshis and that bothers me too

Part One: Antishippers

Where there sails a ship ship so to the antishippers let fly their flags. A common argument I see painted on the bows of their warships is 'This character hasnt been stated as gay yet don't ship them with them.'

This is such a problematic sentence I don't even know where to begin. The fact that people view the default state of sexuality as 'straight until declared gay' creates the stigma that being homosexual is in some way deviant or taboo.

As an example: nobody has a problem with Todoroki being shipped with Momo despite them having minimal character interaction and very little shared dialogue in the show. Yet because they have been seen together in one (1) episode it has even been assumed canon on the same level as Izuku and Ochako which it quite simply is not.

Compare this to Bakugo and Kirishima who have several scenes together, most in even more intimate settings than Todoroki and Momo (study date, walking home at sunset together, the money scene, the rescue, I could go on) yet since the creator has not OUTRIGHT stated that either of these two are gay they have been assumed straight. Antishippers never go after TodoMomo in the same way they do KiriBaku.

I've seen people go as far as to say it would never happen, the creator would never do something so radical as to include one (1) gay couple. Despite the already pretty strong LGBTQ+ presence in the show with characters like Tiger, Big Sis Magne and Toga. These three have their own problems (an issue for another time) but they are there and that's a big step forward that people like to forget about.

Also, is the concept of 'we don't get good gay representation in the media so we write our own' really such a hard thing to grasp? Because it shouldn't be. Gay representation in media is scarce and even if its there it might not be handled sensitively (cough cough banana fish cough) and people naturally would want to go out of their way to provide it for themselves. Because representation is important. Straight, cis, white men really wouldn't understand because they are represented in literally everything all the time so I geuss they can't really fathom not being able look at the main character and go 'it me.' Which is why they put up such a fuss about every single time a woman is cast as the lead role. In anything. But I digress.

My point is basically this: Characters with undefined sexualities are obviously going to draw people in and be used as a comfortable, familiar and interesting starting point to create someone you can resonate with on a deeper level. Especially if there's nothing contradicting your head canon. And even if there is, who cares? There's plenty of straight characters already, representation is not pie and also they aren't real people so thats an extra helping of 'it shouldn't bother you.'

Oh I forgot to mention this rant only extends to fictional character antishippers because I think shipping real people is icky and shouldn't happen regardless of sexuality.

Part Two: Fujoshi Culture

Yes there are straight gals and guys that fetishise it (the male version is a fudanshi at least get it right people) and that's gross and unforgivable please stop doing it.

I would argue however this epidemic is caused by the fact that media, eastern and western alike, refuses to normalise gay relationships. Which means they see it as this sick fetish thing and call it 'sinning.' The literal terms fudanshi and fujoshi are derogatory and paint enjoying 'yaoi' as a guilty pleasure, something to be ashamed of and ridiculed.

And I'd bet my bottom dollar that Japan would want to keep it that way because it does work to sell their mangas.

Nagisa really sums up the whole issue in 50 percent off here's the clip:

https://youtu.be/c_xwtbrXbZM

Part Three: Western Focus

I just want to point out how half hearted and overly subtle these relationships have to be, like you're sneaking it past the republicans like the producers dirty little secret.

Good examples from both sides are Bubbeline, KoraSami, All of Voltron and Literally Any Gay Man In Anime Except Yuri on Ice. Although Yuri on Ice is still pretty coy about admitting that their characters are in a gay relationship.

KoraSami, Bubbeline and Shiro x Shiro's flashback buddy are all western depictions. Being gay in western media is much less commercialised and much less marketable, which is why the main issue with all of these were the writers pushing for something that was then only really confirmed either in: a very heavily fought for kiss last episode or the love story told entirely in (two bros chilling in a hot tub style) flashbacks where said love interest dies in the same episode. None of these are good representation and I don't think I have to spell out why.

Anyway this is another video that sums it up better than I can

https://youtu.be/TOj4WfQPNlk

Part 4: The Bad, The Worse and the Ugly

tw: s*xual a*sault mentioned (part 5 is safe)

I'll be quick

Anime like Banana Fish and Black Butler really like to perpetuate the stereotype that gay men are only gay because they have been r*ped by sick, twisted older men.

As a gay man who has been s*xually a*ssulted in the way that they like to pretend defined my sexuality I can say that this is insulting, triggering and Never. Ever. Handled. Properly. Anime has some issues with sexuality as a whole but it really takes the cake when characters like Ash are abused in real time in the anime and then it's used to 'justify' their promiscuity with men moving forward.

Banana Fish in no way handles the sexual assault tactfully, no matter what people have said to me.

This is an extract I agree with heavily from a pretty well written article (Banana Fish spoilers) :

I mentioned earlier the finale sent an awful message to new viewers. Ash’s story was about survival so for him to easily give up, in the end, sent a horrible message to survivors of sexual violence because it not only told them a moment of vulnerability would get them killed, but the only way survivors could find any peace was through death. The fact that Ash gave up, told survivors they could never escape from their traumas and despite all their efforts, they would never be able to heal from their abusive circumstances.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thatnerdyboliviane.com/2019/01/21/banana-fish-a-bittersweet-experience/amp/

'Kill your gays' is a bad trope in any case but really was an especially poor choice here.

Part 5: Sex Sells and Gay Sex Advertises

I've mentioned above how manga and anime likes to package gay relationships into problematic little bundles and sell it to straight women as a curiosity or oddity. But I really think that it needs to be talked about more. Things shouldn't be more interesting to you just because they're gay, and fetishising minorities is never okay in any context.

I think it's important to note that really the attitudes in both Western and Japanese media are actually the exact same. That being, Gay people are 'others' and should at all costs be hidden away into corners. The only real difference is that Japan is known for selling that kind of content, lumping it in the same category as tentacle hentai and... I don't know any other categories but the point stands. Whereas western media tends to just sequester it into a corner and hope it gets past censorship boards and Karen's. Money is at the forefront of both of these descisions.

It's a real problem that both sides of the anime culture are so problematic. One side is way too into it and the other can't begin to process it.

Here's a video by the same person that covers basically the same ground that's concerning me so much.

https://youtu.be/t3FKlqDocQ4

Part 6: In conclusion

I feel like this is something that is worth being angry about. I'm just sick of how being gay is treated at the moment in anime, tv and film, and how it's being received by straight audiences. The LGBTQ+ community barely seems to get a real say half of the time because people are too busy being head over heels that the author confirmed in an interview that a character is bi or gay but never follows through with it in universe. Or when you try and create content for yourself and get criticised like you were supposed to be happy about what little representation you get in mainstream media. Like shows do the bare minimum and then we're supposed to be happy about it. But I ain't. And I don't think many other people are either.

TLDR:

Gay people being treated like a taboo little secret on both sides of the issue is insulting and gross and never leads to anything good.