#sometimes different characters react differently with personal stuff

[effieotto]

“Haymitch calling Maysilee his sister was so forced” guys, that boy had one look at Proserpina and Vitus and said they were his friends. he couldn’t look at a small kid and and not say was his allies. he saw a damn rabbit MUTT and called it his partner…i think he calling his recently made best friend his sis, when she remind him of the baby sisters he lost and who’s constantly talking about her twin and saying she would be Ampert’s sister if he wanted, was actually pretty valid. The boy was sentimental, and dramatic, and was absolutely losing it. Leave him alone to label whoever he want with whatever he want, please :(

[lesbiansforeddiediaz]

Anyway the entire theme of the episode was people dealing with grief in different ways. Eddie lashed out, Buck trying to fix everything, Athena being cold to Chim, Chimney overcompensating with stuff for the baby etc. No one was acting in a rational way and that was literally the point. Buck never asked how Eddie was doing in a serious way because he was too focused on his 'task' and his own grief and Eddie lashed out at Buck because he felt alone. All of this is in the textttttttt and the characters all love and support each other even when they say hurtful things because they are a family. It's extremely telling the way that only Eddie and sometimes Chim are treated as irredeemable monsters and abusive from the way they react to grief and horrific situations when Bobby has also been physically aggressive (with Buck!) and Buck put Eddie in the hospital over him having a friend that wasn't him and then flirted about hurting Eddie with that new friend instead of apologizing. Buck yelled at Eddie when Eddie was having to make one of the hardest decisions of his life, again because he felt abandoned. None of them are perfect people that react perfectly all the time. Maybe reflect on why it's only a problem when the person doing it isn't white

[s4vcu]

hq boys and their first encounter with you! | pt 1

featuring: tobio kageyama, keiji akaashi and hajime iwaizumi

a/n: gonna start this off w my favs! and will do other parts for sure. this was longer than i intended for it to be, sorry for how LONG it is 😭 anyways, i’m gonna keep posting as much as i can while i have this much time to spare. thank ygs sm! 😭💔

note: gender neutral reader! reader and characters mentioned above are noted to be eyeing one another. (it can be taken as romantic wise or not..i just realized this after proofreading 🥲)

see part 2 here!

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ఌ | tobio kageyama

you’ve already been seeing this guy around the area during his routinely morning jogs. living somewhat close to tobio, you usually headed out around the same time as him. coincidentally doing so, it was usually to arrive to school earlier and do some volunteer work with the different clubs in karasuno, whether it was because extra help was needed with painting or building something, organizing stuff or just helping the club managers in general with tasks that were sometimes overwhelming them. your help was always greatly appreciated, and through that itself you were quite known in the school despite only being a first year. always catching a glimpse of him preparing before starting his jog, you solely knew him as a fellow first year who was a setter for the volleyball team and someone who you were basically neighbours with.

meanwhile, tobio only heard of you through other people, knowing of you as someone who was willing to sacrifice their time, whether it was in the morning like usual or even after school without the expectation of any personal gain. he would always see you as he started his jogs, the two of you crossing paths everytime as you headed towards one direction while he headed towards the other. not to mention, you had high grades, which made you capable to tutor other students whenever. (we all know he needs that tutoring.. 😭)

this one time during lunch, you went to the vending machine, your eyes sparkling as you realized you made it before anyone else as there was only one last milk carton there. happily purchasing it, you stepped aside, about to open it with the straw but suddenly hearing footsteps growing louder and heavy panting. you turned around, looking up at the setter who realized he didn’t make it in time.

“damn it..” he grumbled to himself, staring intently at the rows that would usually have more milk cartons as if he was in denial there were none left - only then making eye contact with you, seeing as you were holding the unopened milk carton in your hand.

that was the first time the two of you had ever made any sort of eye contact. although you had both been in each other’s lives, neither of you actually acknowledged one another, being strangers and knowing very little about each other aside from attending the same school. you looked down at the carton before looking back up at him.

“were you going to buy this too?” you ask softly, your gentle voice catching him off guard. people would say you were soft-spoken, but for the first time that he heard your voice and made eye contact ever, a new sort of feeling was introduced to him.

“uh..yeah.” he muttered, awkwardly scratching his nape, a faint blush on the otherwise usually grumpy setter’s cheeks. now that he’s got a good look at you, he believed that you were even prettier than he already initially thought.

seeing how he was running to get to the vending machine, it made you think just how much having that simple milk carton meant to him. you handed it to him, smiling. “you can have it.” you say, but before he could respond (let alone react), you ran off after seeing the time with some sort of urgency.

that was certainly thoughtful of you.

ఌ | keiji akaashi

you often watched their games after being tagged along by your friend who was eyeing the ace, bokuto, and it was often against your wishes. it wasn’t that they sucked or anything, they didn’t. in fact, they were crazy good..you were just dedicated to your studies and prioritized that over anything else, aside from enjoying reading in your free time.

“come onnn! it’s really fun to watch, i mean it!” your friend says as you sighed. “okay, okay. i know it’s fun to watch. but we need to leave early, i need to study.” you say, but deep down, you couldn’t help but notice the second year setter every time, finding yourself focusing on him every game but simply shaking those thoughts off.

the more that the two of you frequented watching their games, the more that you, unknowingly, had caught the quiet setter’s eye. no matter where the games would be held at, you and your friend would always sit near the front. (your friend wanted to get a good view..) that observation alongside another observation that either you or the both of you would leave early never went unnoticed. there were also some times where you’d coincidentally be at the library at the same time he would come, either busy studying or simply reading a book - though he never did anything, simply watching from afar. and you did the same.

that’s how it was between you two. until they had another game. this time, it was different. although we normally expect some things to be the usual, that’d usually be a sign of when the most unexpected thing would take place, right? well, the two of you were pretty early this time, and you thought, reading a bit before the game started wouldn’t hurt, right? so as your friend was trying to coax you out of your focus on the words in the pages in front of you, bokuto was pretty loud really loud, looking right at you and your friend in the bleachers with a beaming smile all the way from the court.

“(y/n), seriously, LOOK UP!” your friend says with urgency and excitement, making you look up from your book and making eye contact with the setter, the guy who’s lowkey caught your eye while your friend stared at bokuto.

“AKAASSHIII! IS THAT WHO YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?! LOOK, THEY’RE LOOKING AT YOU NOW!” bokuto excitedly says, akaashi turning a bit red as he broke eye contact with you, embarrassed as he could only facepalm.

“bokuto-san. you’re too loud. i told you to keep quiet.” akaashi says in his usual, most respectful but gentle spoken tone of voice.

“BUT IT WORKED!!!” he replied, slowly dragging akaashi near the two of you. you swear you saw your friend almost faint based off your peripheral vision.

akaashi reluctantly accepted his fate, sighing to himself, and soon, the duo was standing right in front of you and your friend. you were shy, simply giving a small smile, still processing what was happening. bokuto happily introduced him to you as you nodded, looking back at akaashi and introducing yourself.

“nice to meet you, (y/n). i’m really sorry for bokuto-san’s sudden outburst, but i’d love to talk with you more sometime. we’re starting our warmup very soon.” akaashi replied, excusing him and bokuto from the two of you before being the one to drag him back towards the court this time.

though the ace made it awkward for the both of you, atleast you both had been introduced to one another now. a win is a win, right? (though your friend was sulking. bokuto was too focused on getting you two to talk, staring intently at the two of you as if he was analyzing something instead of noticing or talking to them. maybe you two could help them eventually..)

ఌ | hajime iwaizumi

many girls in seijoh were head over heels for the popular third year setter, oikawa. almost all of them simply looked forward to having even a glimpse of him, others exaggerating by saying how seeing oikawa “makes their day complete”..but not much seemed to notice the setter’s best friend except you. you thought he was pretty handsome too, how was he not getting any attention? you wondered - also wondering what it was like for him to deal with his best friend’s fangirls everyday, feeling bad for his position.

but how could you not? even you yourself having to deal with the fangirls rushing up the stairs, down the stairs, in the hallways and even when it was after school as they crowded by the gym area in hopes of seeing oikawa was a real pain.

..and this feeling was mutual for both you and iwaizumi, where you’d at times catch his irritated expression, sometimes even witnessing him hit oikawa with a volleyball, his aim never missing (and making you laugh from afar in the process).

iwaizumi was more than sick of it, though he would tolerate it anyways but definitely snap. it’s never not happened before, what reason does he have to not prepare for it to happen again? even if he wished that it would stop for a day, it never did. on school campus and even at other schools, or anywhere..he wonders how he’s been able to last that long.

though he did expect every girl to be fawning over his best friend, he was surprised to see you trying your hardest to ignore the crowd every time, yet alone show any interest in the famous setter. sometimes seeing you laugh from afar after catching a glimpse of him hitting oikawa with a volleyball, sometimes making eye contact with one another, even - it made you stand out in his eyes. but oikawa noticed too, liking a challenge.

“iwa-chan. do you know (y/n)?” oikawa asks while on the way home with him once, immediately earning a glance from iwaizumi.

“oh, that’s their name? i’ve seen them around, but i don’t know them personally.” he responds, though he’s interested deep down.

“they’re interesting, don’t you think? always tries avoiding my crowd of fangirls, never pays attention to me..it’s a challenge for me.” oikawa says teasingly, though unknowingly hitting a nerve for iwa.

“..what? what do you mean, challenge?” iwa replies, the usual irritation but this time mixed with a small hint of some other sort of feeling mixed in his tone.

“as in..maybe i can make them notice me!” oikawa says.

“as if they’d notice YOU. leave them alone, they ignore you and your fangirls for a reason, shittykawa.” he replies, his brows furrowed, his tone still the same - and this time, oikawa picks up on it.

“woah, iwa-chan. what’s with that tone? you like them or something?” he asks, earning an incoherent grumble from iwaizumi, the tips of his ears red.

“no. i’m just saying. just leave them alone. clearly they don’t have time for that.” he grumbles, this time more audible as he only hears a laugh from oikawa in return.

“okay, iwa-chan. whatever you say.” he says.

as soon as the next day came, they had practice in the morning, and you coincidentally decided to come to school earlier and enjoy the fresh breeze on a bench, though it was near the gym.

as you were walking by, minding your own business, you suddenly felt a ball hit the side of your head quite strongly, making you fall down on the ground. immediately, you heard footsteps approaching, seeing someone kneel in front of you.

“hey, are you okay? i’m so sorry-“ iwaizumi says, pausing when the two of you make eye contact, not expecting the person he hit to be you. of all times that he could’ve missed hitting oikawa, it just had to be now. and you of all possible people..

“..i’m okay. it’s okay, don’t worry.” you replied, noticing the genuine look of guilt in his eyes, the glow of the sunrise on his handsome face making his features look even better.

“no, i’m really sorry. that was meant for shittykawa-“ he says in reply, only to be interrupted by the setter.

“oh? iwa-chan, stop calling me that!” oikawa says, though a smirk is on his face. “and would you look at that. you missed terribly. anyways, you’re (y/n), right?” he says, looking at you as iwaizumi helped you up. the vein on his forehead only grew more noticeable as oikawa took the opportunity of flirting as he was talking with you, feeling incredibly bad.

not only did he hit you terribly hard instead of his annoying best friend, but you were now being flirted with by the setter who just told him the day before that he sees you as a challenge. he internally blamed himself for causing you trouble..and as oikawa was still talking to you, he grabbed the volleyball that was on the ground, this time hitting him accurately with it and letting the setter yelp in pain.

“just shut up already, shittykawa. this is your fault.” iwaizumi grumbles, glaring at him as oikawa sighed, saying his goodbyes before he walked away.

“..i need to go too. i’m really sorry again.” he says, the tips of his ears red from the small conversation, wishing he could bring himself to say more. two ‘i’m really sorry’s plus a ‘i’m so sorry’ would not make the cut. maybe to you, it was, but to him it definitely wasn’t. (though he was embarrassed, he definitely went out of his way to check up on you and make sure you were doing okay whenever he saw you that same day. 🥹🤚)

[aventoru]

when you take pictures in his phone

character(s) : sae, rin, kaiser

warning(s) : none

a/n : this is another repost from my old acc!!

SAE ITOSHI

usually, sae itoshi would be pissed off if someone touched his posessions without his permission

but with you, it’s a different story

maybe it’s partially his fault for inviting you out for dinner after his practice session

he shouldn’t have asked you to come to along with him knowing full well you would get bored

but he did, and that’s how he ends up scrolling through his photo album, dozens of selfies of you fill the 3x3 layout

if it’s anyone else, sae will not hesitate to insult their…photography techniques and immediately delete the photos

but this is you, his long-time friend and maybe—sae wishes in his heart— something even more than that

he looks up at you with a deadpan expression, trying to formulate the words to tell you off, but he doesn’t have the spirit to do that

“y/n, what is this?” he starts

“well, y’know, i got bored so i decided to pass time by messing with your phone. i didn’t get the chance to delete the pics but you can delete them now,” you admit

sae feels his heart drop for making you feel guilty about something seemingly harmless. but to be fair, he has no rizz doesn’t know how to react to situations like these, you are simply too cute

from the look your face, sae knows you think he’s mad at you when in fact, it’s quite the opposite

he finds your pictures stunning. you are softly smiling in them, sometimes even winking playfully

the poses and hand gestures in the photos are iconic, although the 0.5x zooms are his favorites

he has to resist the urge to set one as his lockscreen (but sadly you two were only friends for now)

sae decides, that one day he would tell you his feelings but until then he’ll continue giving you…hints

“why would i delete those pics? you look cute,” he locks his phone and stuff it in his pocket

sae’s decision to keep the pics is final as he beckons you out of the facility and into his car

you follow along with a blushing face and a stuttering heart

and oh- is that a smile on his face?

RIN ITOSHI

rin is scowling when he catches you red-handed as you take selfies on his phone

in your defense, it’s a joke, and you are planning on deleting the pictures

you’re good friends with rin, and naturally, you assume it’s okay for you to do that. you do that to all your other friends all the time, so there shouldn’t be a problem with rin, right?

you’re midway through pressing the round button for another selfie when you feel a presence next to you

you don’t even need to turn your head to know who it is, considering rin’s black hair is in the frame of the camera

you hurriedly put down the phone and immediately start to select the previously taken photos with the intent of deleting them

“what are you doing?” he questions as he peers down at your administrations

you regret your previous actions, considering this is itoshin rin, the most blunt person you know.

perhaps he doesn’t find this as funny or casual as you think he will

“i’m deleting these photos, sorry for invading your privacy,” you unconsciously pouts and he notices it

“what? hey, no, don’t do that,” he snatches his phone away from your grip

“why not? you’re obviously upset,” you gesture towards the scowl on his face

“i’m not upset, i just have a resting bitch face,” he clarifies, not daring to look at your face.

“it’s just…if you do this again, i want to take pics with you, too.”

“oh,” you raised your eyebrows, dumbfounded

OH. MY. GOD. HE WANTS TO WHAT???

“so you wanna take pics with me, huh?” a smug expression appears on your face.

rin stares back unimpressed

“i’m deleting these pics,” he selects all the pictures threateningly

“no don’t!!!” it was your turn to stop him now

MICHAEL KAISER

kaiser loves to tease you at any chance he gets

so when he catches you taking selfies on his phone, he is ready to make an embarassment out of you

but considering he’s head over heels for you himself, he thinks maybe he won’t embarrass you too much and let you off the hook for once

and besides, you’re quite bold for taking the michael kaiser’s phone and filling it with pictures of yourself, if he isn’t intrigued by you before, he definitely is now

so when you hear kaiser’s laid back tone calliing for your attention, you immediately hide his phone away from view, hoping that you would be able to delete your pics in time

but kaiser is faster, and he easily snatches the phone away from your seemingly vice grip

“daring to take pictures of yourself on my phone, i see?” he smirks and you so desperately want to wipe it off his face

“just delete those pics then,” you retort back knowing full well you’re in the wrong

“i never said anything about not liking them,” he teases, handing the phone back to you

“since you wanna take pics so much, let’s take one together,” he continues after seeing the perplexed look on your face

your eyes widen but you obey nonetheless, extending your arm to capture both of you in the frame

meanwhile, kaiser takes this opportunity to make you more flustered than you already are

he gingerly wraps his arms around you waist and pulls you close and proceeds to hide his face in the crook of your neck

the only thing visible to the camera was his side profile and the cocky smirk that still adorns his face

the proximity made you nervous and you hope he doesn’t make out your quickened heartbeat

you could feel kaiser’s hot breath on your collarbones and since when did his cologne smell so good???

“are you gonna take the picture or not?” he speaks up, breaking your train of thought

“of course i am,” you clear your throat

you internally hold your breath as you snap a pic and try to detangle yourself from kaiser right after

“hey, where are you going? i never told you to take just one,” kaiser holds you back in place

the way he looks at you tells you everything you need to know : he’s already figured out your little crush on him, hasn’t he?

[cupcakeslushie]

Happy holidays!

It’s hard to say how Donnie would react in every circumstance, especially an AU, which ya know, is where I kinda live lol. But even with my EW Donnie growing up with different experiences, there are moments where i actively want him to be different, but moments i have to sit and think about how he’s still the same lovable purple guy.

Canon Donnie is such a people pleaser. Donnie’s love language is clearly acts of service/gift giving, creating inventions to make the family’s lives easier…and when they don’t, Donnie tends to either go into a denial mode, refusing any criticism, or fix it mode.

He can’t handle the idea of just dropping a project—not until he has no other choice. When Shelldon literally destroyed the lair and nearly killed them all, Donnie insisted he could improve him. When he saw the billboard for Purple Game 2, he was still 100% invested in getting that game, despite knowing full well how much damage his obsession caused, and that it was a ploy created by the Purple Dragons. When April went to Witch Town, instead of him, he took that as the highest insult to his talents. If Donnie’s got a worm in his brain for something, he’s not going to let anything stop him—sometimes even, to the detriment of his family’s health.

He loves them, obviously, but he can still be very self involved, and it often blinds him to how he’s hurting them. I personally think this comes from having Raph and Leo always there to be his safety net/older siblings. If something goes awry, they’ll take care of it, Donnie is the results guy, not the plan guy. I see a lot of fanon Donnie taking on everything— taking charge in a emergency—and I’m not ragging, I even enjoy seeing that trope of Donnie working himself to death, doing it all, when it’s written very well—but in canon, Donnie relies a lot on Raph and Leo as team leaders for support and guidance. I think if something were to happen to both of them, he’d need some time to panic and pull himself together. He trusts their judgment (only ever pushing back with a few follow up questions) and backs them up. They come up with the plan, and he figures out how to implement it, or just follows along until his intelligence (or sarcasm) is needed. The times we do see Donnie take charge, he has zero patience for it lol (see Mind Meld). He will stand back, if he doesn’t have much to do and snark about what’s going wrong.

If it’s a fight situation, Donnie’s usually not the one to charge in headfirst. In both Shredder fights (and a few others), he allows the others to go in swinging before he takes a go, and then right off the bat, he pulls out some pretty big final moves (whether they worked as final moves, well 😬) so I think Donnie tends to leave the super physical stuff to the other three, unless it’s a one vs one, or if he can see they need help. He IS a great fighter, that’s for damn sure, but I think if he can go last, and make it into a big show, he has more fun with it.

There is the attention seeking, seeing as he’s a middle child. This is where I get into heavy head canon territory…

We can maybe, safely assume from canon, that Splinter gives Donnie the least amount of attention. I do think the Splinter attention goes-> Mikey, Leo (tho most of that attention is negative from being reprimanded lol), Raph, then Donnie. And while Leo tells himself the negative attention he gets from being a little shit is the same as any attention, I think Donnie desperately needs positive attention, and someone to validate all his creations.

I hope any of that made sense. I’m not the best at writing down my thoughts on a character’s motivations and personality lol. I’m mostly going off vibes when I write.

[never2tired4u]

Hey!! I hope you're doing well! I just read your post about the dateables reacting to MC back in human form, and I really loved it! Your writing was great and I loved how their personalities were on point!! I saw your asks were open and wanted to ask if you'd like to write a bit of a domestic fluff with the dateables reacting to MC cooking/teaching them how to cook human food! (especially Solomon bc he's the worst at it lol) Thank you and please write more in the future, you're amazing 💗

— 🦇

Note: Thank you so much 🦇 anon! Also I love this idea, unfortunately i actually didn't know what to do with it :( but tried my best and sorry for not replying soon. Been busy with life in general… Came back to NB yesterday only to get a message from Luke saying he was being chased by Devildom tomatoes lol

You are amazing too and I will try to write more in the future <3

OBEY ME! Dateables x Reader

Characters: 《°•[ Solomon , Simeon , Diavolo , Barbatos...]•°》

Summary: 《°•[ Cooking with them!]•°》

Warnings: 《°•[ Fluff, Solomon wanting to cook.]•°》

With Solomon, cooking isn’t easy. He is a free spirit, curious, and itching to try different combinations with a smile on his face, be it potions or spells, or cooking. Thankfully, he is powerful enough to fix those failed experiments and let it be a learning experience for him, except when he is tasked (himself) to cook. He tries, fails, and just accepts it as perfection, never learning his lesson, never improving. You don’t have the heart to tell him to not join you in the kitchen since he seems to genuinely love cooking for people, however, sometimes he really tests your patience.

Like right now, as he tries, once again, to add some sort of weird ingredient to the pot. Something that DEFINITELY doesn't belong in a human dish…Or any realm's dish for that matter.

“Oh, you caught me.”

“Put that down.” you warned him with a stern voice, Solomon just smiled while slowly lowering the thing, “Not in the pot!” you yelled, barely managing to stop him before he added his ‘touch’ to the meal, “Solomon, what did we talk about?”

Solomon frowned, “I know, it just…” sighing as he glanced at the book, reading the instructions again, “The recipe seems so boring.”

“It’s a soup recipe.”

He dramatically sighed again and stepped back, putting the “ingredient” he was going to add back into his pocket, making you wonder what it even was. Your thoughts were quickly interrupted by him wrapping his arms around your waist from behind and resting his cheek on your shoulder, “Sorry, I promise I won't try to add any DemonFlower Eyeball into it.”

“Just don't add anything!”

“Okay okay,” he laughs, “Only human stuff, got it.”

A smile formed on your lips after hearing his voice next to your ear, a gentle and calm tone. Ready to do anything you requested from him. For now.

After all, even though Solomon is a free spirit, his love for you makes him come back down to earth. If it is you who tells him to follow the recipe, then he will. And surprisingly enough, he isn’t a bad cook once he stops his ways of…adding things.

He fetches you some ingredients then stands next to you, waiting for your instructions (since you sadly don't trust him much to do anything on his own). You finished rather quickly and ready the bowls. Both of you sit on the table and Solomon takes his first sip, “And here I thought I was the teacher in our relationship. It seems I have a lot to learn from you too.” he says as a genuine smile graces his lips.

“Hm? Why do you say that?”

“This tastes delicious.”

“It's a simple dish.” you say, a little confused by his low tone, and the far away look in his eyes.

“It's been forever since I've eaten any human world food,” his smile never leaves his face, “It may be a simple dish but that is what makes it so special. Thank you for the food.”

Simeon is someone who enjoys cooking, not as much as Luke perhaps, but he is still okay at it. For him, trying new recipes every now and then, helping Luke around is something of a routine at this point. Cooking in general has always been a job he needed to do, until his view changed quickly when you decided to enter the kitchen with him. The angel then quickly realized that cooking can also be fun and engaging too.

If you are around that is.

Tonight, you had a craving for some human world food. Luke asked to try some too so you decided to get to work and Simeon offered to help.

“So, where do we start?-” he is suddenly stopped by your arms wrapping around him and completely stops moving for a moment, however he gently hugs you back.

“Simeon?” you ask in confusion, “What are you doing?”

Simeon slightly pulls back, only to realize you were just tying the apron around him, “Oh.” he smiles gently, while mentally hitting himself on the head and pulls back, “I thought you wanted a hug.”

“Maybe later, now let's get to work!”

Simeon is out of his usual attire and wearing something more comfortable instead, with an apron tied to his waist thanks to you.

He listens to what you want to make and what he can do. (Un)fortunately he usually finishes his work pretty fast and then tries to take over yours to help which you refuse. Giving him another, much more simple task and while he does that Simeon often starts to ramble.

“...Would it be rude of me to say that I like how human ingredients are so normal?”

“Compared to what?”

“Anything from Devildom really...” Simeon can't help but look guilty, it feels like he is insulting the whole Devildom himself, a place most of his friends consider a home, but he can't help it, “At least these don't try to attack us.”

“Oh, that's true,” you almost let out a chuckle at how nervous Simeon seems as he chops tomatoes, probably imagining them starting a fight, “What about Celestia?”

“Celestia? Well, hm…” his hands pause for a moment as he gets lost in thought, “They are…Okay? Though, some of them are…Too much.”

You aren't really sure what Simeon means by ‘Too much.’ but decide not to ask about it as he seems annoyed. A memory of an energetic cucumber crossed his mind, perhaps?

“I'm glad you like our normal and boring tomatoes then.”

Simeon laughs nervously, “Yeah, I like it, especially since they don't grow legs and run around.” he turns to you with a smile, “So, we can just focus on making the food and enjoy talking like this.”

Even after the food was finished and the three of you sat down to enjoy the food Simeon can't help but ask you to teach him more human world recipes, “Luke enjoyed it.” he says. Hoping you don't notice how he just wants to spend time with you.

“You want me to make a human world dish?”

“No.” you shake your head, “We are going to make it together, Barbatos.”

Barbatos smiles, when people come to him they always have requests. For example, Beelzebub. The young devil always says he wants to eat his cooking, or use the big kitchen at the palace for a new dish. No one ever came to him and asked to cook together since it was usually his job alone to do, he is a butler after all.

“Alright. However, I don't know the dish you want to make, so…” he can't help but chuckle a little as he bows his head, “Please treat me kindly.”

His words are a complete lie though, Barbatos may not know how the recipe goes but he can tell what needs to be added. He is a great cook, and so graceful while he does the work. He is pretty quick too so the food is almost done already.

“Hmm…” after taking a small sip from the pot you can't help but think that something is missing, it tastes good but it could be better you think, so you turn to your helper, as he likes to call himself, “Barbatos, what do you think of this?”

He casually takes the spoon you hold for him and hums, “It's great, but how about adding some bay leaf?”

“...Bay leaf? We have that?”

“I do, I sometimes use it.” he walks up to a random cabinet and pulls out a jar, “It goes well in foods that need to be cooked for a long period of time. You just need to take it out after it's done.”

“Huh. So, you use human world ingredients in your cooking?”

“Only when you are around,” you watch as Barbatos adds two leaves into the pot, “It's amusing to see your reaction when you eat what I cook for you.”

“That's why they taste so familiar!?”

Barbatos innocently smiles at you, “Don't forget to stir, dear. Or would you like me to take over?”

“Barbatos, don't tell me you actually have been making me human food that looks like Devildom food.”

“I thought the familiar taste would make you happy.”

“...That's kind. Thank you.” you smile, but then squint your eyes at him, “You sure there's nothing else…?”

Barbatos doesn't say anything as he starts cleaning around the kitchen, picking up the things you've used and no longer need.

Of course there's another reason why he secretly cooks human dishes for you. It's so you can visit him, compliment him and ask for him. It's a selfish reason. However, for someone like him it's not surprising. He is a demon, and when it comes to your time and attention, he selfishly wants it all.

You are asking the prince, the future ruler of Devildom to cook with you, a human dish? And he agrees with a laugh? If anyone heard this, they would be thinking the Devildom is coming to an end. His butler however, can't help but think Diavolo agreed without hesitation only because it's you and only because it's a way to escape from his duties. Considering the prince has never touched an utensil in his life, it is weird to see that he seems so confident.

His confidence, however, quickly shaders as he accidentally pushes on the tomato too much while trying to chop it and makes a mess. Covering your aprons and walls with tomato seeds and juices.

He turns to you and smiles, “Have I ever told you that you look good in red?”

You scoff but can't help as a smile grows on your face, “Yes, usually when I'm in a red outfit, not when in a red mess.”

“Small details.” he laughs, but a sigh leaves him as he looks down at the chopping board, “I didn't think they would be so soft and delicate.”

“Don't blame the tomatoes.” when he turns his sad eyes towards you, you wave your hands around quickly, a feeling of guilt settling in, “Don't blame yourself either, accidents happen in kitchens! We can still use it.”

“That's great! Then I'll continue with the cutting,” he says, smiling again, “I'll be more careful from now onl.”

Diavolo may not have a lot of experience in the kitchen, no matter which realm the food is from, but he still finds his own failures fun. Laughing when he accidentally drops the salt shaker in the pan or when he almost burns himself. As a prince he never had mishaps in the kitchen before.

It's new, it's entertaining.

“Thank you for helping me.” you can't help but look at the bandages around his fingers, “Even though it was kind of a disaster.”

Diavolo laughs as he searches for the plates,”No no, thank you! This was a lot of fun. And we get to taste the fruit of our labor too!” he finally finds the right cabinet, “And I'm always happy to learn about the things you enjoy, like this dish.”

He might still have a lot of papers to read and sign but every once in a while he goes into the kitchen to cook the recipe he learned from you. He is extra careful while making it if he is making it for you but is more care free if it's only for himself. He also eats it when he misses you when you are unable to visit him, the same human world dish brings comfort to him as he imagines it bringing comfort to you.

Ⓒ2024

[thydungeongal]

Not wanting bad stuff in a game's lore while wanting to oppose bad stuff from the lore during gameplay is irksome, and I'm curious as to your thoughts on the matter. Mine are focused on Exalted 2e's lore in particular, but I know it doesn't have a monopoly on lore that Has Issues.

I go back and forth on this issue and I don't think there is a single Right approach, but multiple approaches that can be Right for different purposes.

For example, I do personally enjoy it when a game does actually engage with marginalization. Sometimes it is fun to just play a girl who likes other girls and have the universe just be like "hell yeah," but in that kind of game there really won't be meaningful ways to engage with issues of gender and sexuality. Cause if the society doesn't react to a person's gender and sexuality with anything but a positive acknowledgement, there's no conflict there.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that you can't really play out Arwen's storyline unless there are meaningful differences in expectations for men and women.

There are some themes I really don't want to touch in my games, but that's not to say that I consider them unworthy of being used in games at all. For example, when I'm running games I really don't want to touch on sexual violence in any way, but that doesn't mean I consider the topic something that should never be tackled in a roleplaying game. It just happens to be such a sensitive topic that I don't feel comfortable using it as a major foreground element in my games.

So like. It depends. there's not an end-all-be-all approach to this, but I think it's generally always good to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what sort of stuff should not be included in the game. But for some topics like how society might marginalize people due to their gender or sexuality or disability I think it actually makes for some really great characterization provided the setting actually responds to it.

Anyway gesturing towards @anim-ttrpgs and their games because they are very much in line with my tastes with regards to this. Death Bed is a soulslike RPG that is very heavily inspired by actual medieval culture, including the gender roles of the time, and I think it strikes a good balance of making playing a woman who goes against feminine gender roles interesting while actually making it a source of conflict (with mechanical support) while also making playing a woman who adheres to accepted standards of femininity a valuable character archetype worth playing as is. Their other games also touch on these topics fantastically.

[tealvenetianmask]

Is there stigma about mental illness in Hell?

Personal bit: I've had chronic depression and anxiety for my entire adult life, and I used to guard it as this big secret, but now I have friends and coworkers who are understanding and have their own issues. And I work in a helping profession where I see that dealing with this stuff is just really fucking common. But recently I've had a bit of culture shock hanging out with my family, and realizing that... oh wait, we still treat our mental health issues like deep dark secrets and refuse to talk about them and/or seek help. And that's the only acceptable way to act. Okay. Thanks guys.

Personal ramble aside, yes, mental health stigma is still an issue in America, 2024 (obviously). And thanks to Sinsmas, I'm convinced that it's an issue in Vivzie's Hell too, in a way that's pretty reflective of how real contemporary society treats it.

Stolas chooses not to tell Blitz about his happy pills. We find out as the episode progresses that he never told Via either.

And plenty of arguments could be made about Stolas just not wanting to burden the people he cares most for. Not wanting Via to worry about him. Not wanting Blitz to be put out financially by tracking down the pills. But I think there's a level of embarrassment here too, and here's why.

Stolas has spent his life being told to bottle up his emotions, and we have evidence of this. We've also seen him struggling to hide his emotions from Blitz before, turning his back in The Full Moon, and straining when forcing himself to stop crying in Apology Tour.

Is the cultural aversion to displays of emotion just an upper class thing in Hell? I think the answer is "sort of." There are ways in which a Goetia is expected to behave, and lower-class demons have more freedom.

BUT

It's not really that simple. We saw toxic masculinity coming from Millie's parents and from Crimson, and that kind of attitude sort of goes hand in hand with mental health stigma. We also saw Verosika say this-

Which shows a certain attitude toward seeking treatment . . .

And Blitz ALSO has a preoccupation with acting like he's fine and can handle things without help that seems very grounded in sort of a working class, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" attitude. (Bye to all that by Ghostfuckers..)

This has all been a very long way of saying that yes, mental health stigma in Hell is significant and affects our characters.

So what role does discovering Stolas's pills play for Via?

She takes them as confirmation of her fear (one she already had a lot of evidence for, to be fair...) that Stolas stayed in a miserable marriage for 17 years just for her. And more- that she was "never enough" to make him happy.

And she's right but. She's oversimplifying it. She did make her dad happy. When someone's suffering, from abuse, from mental illness, from . . . literal society . . . one wonderful relationship is still not going to make their life a happy one.

Beyond Stolas's specific situation, people with great lives sometimes need happy pills. People's lives are multifaceted, and that's a lot for a young person to understand sometimes.

So if Octavia had grown up in a situation where people . . . idk, talked about mental health and didn't stigmatize emotions . . .?

Yeah, I think she'd react differently to the happy pills. But more importantly, the level of secrecy wouldn't be the same. Stolas would have been more open about his range of emotions and about needing pills, and in countless other ways this situation would have played out differently.

And now I'm tying myself in knots trying to imagine Goetia culture WITHOUT mental health stigma. I don't think it would exist in the same way at all. Quick, someone get an army of excellent mental health professionals and assign them to every single member of Hell's aristocracy.

[joejhang]

unpacking the different narrative voices in aftg pt. 1: neil

basically what the title says.

insane tunnel vision. have already said this but basically. not unreliable narration just with such insanely skewed priorities that he will delude you, the reader, into thinking that ball is life and nothing else really matters, up to and including your survival, social life and future. like really, neil is so single-minded about exy that he most of the stuff that isn't exy-related he just won't talk about. like will not even mention. his narration revolves around his priorities, and his priorities are very limited and unconventional.

he will not describe the way any characters look. not even hair colour or skin tone or anything. unless it is necessary for u to understand why he reacts to them in a certain way. the only reason he describes allison in the detail that he does is because it leads into why he isn't interested in women and how that relates to his time on the run. the reason why he describes renee in detail is an explanation for why she bothers him and why he doesn't trust her.

ball actually is life. not joking. andrew threatens to murder katelyn and neil literally just thinks hm. this has the potential to mildly affect exy practice tomorrow. like it's not an exaggeration.

i did say he's very focused on survival but honestly not really. neil honestly is a bit of an unreliable narrator because even tho he's not intentionally misleading or lying in his narration, his own narrator bias bleeds into his narration a LOT and his perceptions of himself and the people around him aren't always accurate. for example, he describes himself as fearful and intensely focused on survival, even after he ditches every reasonable fear of retribution and survival instinct to bitch at riko. so honestly, he's not even that laser focused on survival, he just thinks that he is, so he makes it seem like he is in his narration. it leads to an interesting cognitive dissonance, because he's been pavloved to think about his own survival before anything, but he quite literally comes to terms with his inevitable death sometime at the beginning of trk and spends the rest of the series fucking around and doing things that will arguably make his death much sooner and bloodier. so. he's just funny like that.

anyway his narration is very rough around the edges. he doesn't go into detail describing just about anything except for things that relate to exy (e.g. the foxhole court, practices and games). eventually he expands his horizons a bit more and describes his makeout sessions with andrew.

his narration is very logical and rational for the most part. when things happen that trigger strong emotions (e.g. drake's attack, ea's transfer), he tends to acknowledge those emotions, spend some time unpacking or explaining them, and then turn to his coping mechanisms of smoking/running. but for the most part, his narration is pretty bare bones and you spend a lot of time in his head rather than experiencing actual events. he does a lot of exposition and info dumping and just general Pondering™. but i honestly don't mind it i think it's helpful and generally very concise.

anyway a very unconscious narrator. he does a lot of the things that he does in his narration subconsciously rather than deliberately. the stuff he skims over and/or skips entirely aren't things that he deliberately wants to avoid (see: jeremy knox) but are literally just things he considers unimportant and therefore automatically won't focus on in his head.

a lot of this unintentional misleading in his narration is why it's so fun and a little jarring to see him from an outsider's pov. because you realise: oh he is not what he led us to believe at all. he made us think he was this normal, chill, quiet guy but he's actually. deeply unsettling and a little bit scary. and also has insane aura. part of why tsc neil was revolutionary to me.

honestly his narration is so reflective of his personality it's actually really cute. like his narration style is unconventional yes, but he'll occasionally drop a throwaway line that is just so him it's so cute (see: "neil considered asking [dan] how she was doing in her english classes but took the higher road of silence." and "in his tired state neil thought it was the greatest bus ever invented."). love him.

[terriblepersongreatseamonster]

I've been thinking a lot about where Maomao falls on the Ace spectrum. I think a person's own experience has a lot of influence on how someone interprets what kind of asexual she is. I'm not going to go so far as to say where she falls for certain, but I'd like to share a bit about myself and my experience to explain why I approach her character the way I do when writing my fic.

Fair warning, I'm about to talk about touch abuse in church settings.

I'm both demi & bi. I grew up a pastor's kid, & if you haven't grown up in churches you may not be aware of how big a role physical touch plays in that environment. My entire childhood I was expected to allow anyone to hug me or do other things like touch my shoulders/back/face etc... I was never a big fan of touch, but I had no say in the matter. I was not allowed to say no. There were men who took advantage of this & while nothing extremely terrible happened, I do qualify what happened as sexual harassment. I had no way to avoid this stuff happening, I couldn't tell anyone. If I had, I would've been treated as a liar & it would've had negative repercussions for my family. I was regularly reminded of the fact that if I messed up it could cost my dad his job. And yes, before you ask, my parents would not have been in my corner. At best, my mom would've told me she was sorry it happened and told me never to mention it again. I might've even been forced to go apologize to those who harmed me for somehow being a stumbling block and causing their behavior.

I don't like to be touched. I also take a long time to warm up & trust people. Most people who meet me intially find me to be very quiet & withdrawn. When my now-husband & I started dating I told him right away that I didn't like to be touched. We had to take any physical interactions (even hugs) very slow. I've gotten more comfortable with his touch over the last 11 years, but even now there are plenty of times that he'll hug or kiss me & my reaction is very similar to how Maomao typically reacts to Jinshi's touch. Quite a lot of the time I don't feel one way or another about him touching me. Sometimes I get really annoyed by it. Other times I'm ok with it.

Like I said earlier, I'm not going to try to nail down where Maomao lands on the Ace spectrum. I'm also not going to go so far as to say she's completely anti-touch. She's very young & has had a lot of trauma involving touch in her life. In the light novels it even comes up at one point that her big sisters put her through some courtesan training that made her cry. I do think it's interesting that once you get past LN5 Maomao does slowly start to seem to get more ok with Jinshi's touch. By LN12 she actually goes to him and they end up holding each other and falling asleep on the floor.

I do think if she'd been more open & honest with Jinshi from the get-go about her feelings regarding touch, we would've seen some very different behavior from him in that regard. But I also understand she likely felt she couldn't do that because of the extreme gap in rank that she's always hyper-aware of.

And again, I do think that the way each person interprets Maomao's asexuality is entirely dependent upon their own personal experience. I'm not looking to start any fights or anything. Trust me I don't have the energy to do that. I'm not about to tell someone else their interpretation is wrong or insist that they should have the same interpretation that I do. I think the beauty of Maomao is that whether you're pro or anti-jinmao, you can still enjoy & love her as a character.

[korzinochechka]

Russian tips for ficwriters or artists of cysova

well eh I saw a lot of people trying to use proper russian swearings or stuff in russian for sova and most of the time i feel something like "do you really think we don't have capital letters or something?" so please F8CKING ATTENTION

1. capital letters. yes, you see that i don't use any of that here. does it bother you? if yes, then IT'S THE SAME FOR US. please, when you start the sentence, use fucking capital letters. not: "да, - he said. - I got it." but "Да, - he said. - I got it." please, it's not THAT HARD. even google translator gives it to you when you start the word with the capital letter. and when you do, it'll probably make me feel some respect.

2. swearings. they differ. yes, in english there aren't a lot of words to describe the situation (fuck, shit and their variatoions.....). in russian it's a work of art, and it can be seen when a non-russian speaker uses something without even googling at least one article on that stuff.

so. if you got hit by something or you're shocked, you might wanna yell:

F8cking hell! - Ёбаный в рот! Блять! (censored: Ё*аный в рот! Бл*ть!) What the f8ck?? - Чё за хуйня? Что за чёрт? (Чё за х*йня? Что за чёрт?) (чёрт is a demon, but in less scary way lmao, plus it's still a swearing but without explicit language used. plus yes, we may say чё instead of что, it differs in pronounciation, just like proper What and Wha. the same difference. a slang or whatever.) Какого хуя? (Какого х*я?) Shit! - yes, you may use Дерьмо, but it must be in a dissappointed manner. for instance, if something bad happens instantly and I am scared, I'd better yell БЛЯТЬ!!! in both shocked and dissappointed manner, but if I mean that the situation is shit or I'm dissappointed in something, I may use Дерьмо. it's similar to Блять sometimes, but Дерьмо is longer, so it's used commonly in less stressed situatioins or when the main shock went away. "Дерьмо, my back is swollen". "Дерьмо, I got shot in the back". if the character has time to react - use Дерьмо. if something is urgent or instant - Блять is better. Bitch (Сука!) works too, but most of the time it is used when the anger is adressed towards someone (Сука, he shot me! - here Сука is both a dissappointment and anger and shock (like with SHIT! (блять!)) AND an anger towards a person. even if the person is abstract) 3. pet names. stop using "любовь". yes, in english you may use love or honey for calling people, but we don't do this, it's the same as if I called someone "cabbage" and thought it was romantic. use the proper ways:

Любимый (-ая for females (любимая)) - yes, it's romantic, but it's a soup opera. mostly men don't use it, so if we're talking about Cypher and Sova, I'd say they would use everything except this one. OR they'd use Любимый but only in situations where they talk about each other but not in front of each other (or in really serious situations when they want to calm each other). but still most of the time it sounds cringe. imagine a grown 35+ years old soldier call another soldier "kitty". cute but weird. Дорогой (-ая) - mostly russians use this word for talking about husbands and wifes. Similar to "beloved" (возлюбленный(-ая)). and it is a bit official, but only a bit, the same way as people write in letters "Dear John, ...", Дорогой means dear or even darling. may be used in sarcastic way just like dear. used only in serious relationships next to being married. Милый - it also means cute or pretty. Этот парень такой милый! (This guy is so cute!) may also be translated like "the dude's a gentlemen" since the meaning also include politeness in some way. when we call someone like this but using the commas from both sides, it's a way of showing affection or the relationship status: "Милый, когда ты домой вернёшься?" "Honey, when will you be back home?" - the wife called her husband. plus the order of words in russian isn't so strict, so you may sometimes change it or Sova may use some pet names in the unusual places ("Cypher, милый, what the fuck happened?" is appropriate, though "Милый, Cypher, ...?" will be considered weird due to strange word order (Honey, Cypher - it's weird as well, although may be accepted due to russian intonations that may change the whole meaning), so don't play too much). Любовь моя/Моя любовь - use it in romantic plays of 16th century. i mean, it sounds really fucking old. "my love" in english may not appear as such, but in Russian you may see people using it when they are exaggerating. and mostly in comedy shows or soap operas as well. so don't use it often, please, better use something else. although it's good if you're making an easter egg for some russian songs ("Моя любовь на пятом этаже, почти где луна..." or "Любовь моя всегда выходила мне боком, занозой под ноготь..." - google them, these songs are awesome and a lot of people know them), but I never saw anyone do it yet, unfortunately.

so, yeah, thank you for your attention. if you have any questions - just write here, you may even use examples, I'll help. english is not my first language, so you might have seen mistakes here, for which I'm sorry. but it's pretty disturbing when you're reading a fanfic where there are like two or three russian words and even they weren't used in a proper way lmao.

have a good day!

[sokkastyles]

The zutara fics where Zuko talks to Katara after the EIP kiss and says stuff like "if Aang really cares for you he'll listen if you tell him how you feel" and is gentle and supportive are actually the ones where the author is doing it for Aang's benefit and is trying to salvage Katara and Aang's friendship. In reality Zuko would actually be entirely in the right to be like "girl you should punch him."

Like I've seen people say waaay too many times before that male characters being angry and protective is "toxic masculinity," but sometimes toxic masculinity actually looks like men making excuses for other men when they hurt women.

Like I think there are times when Zuko gets angry at Aang because of realizing that the person who is supposed to save the world from his father doesn't share his same anger at injustice (but Katara does), and I think that's how he might react to hearing that Aang kissed Katara like that, too. That somebody who was supposed to be a savior, someone who is supposed to be different from his father in every way, would treat the person they supposedly love that way.

[so-long-soldier28]

i love liam because i know i guy irl who punches walls when he's mad and he terrifies me. the smallest thing can tick him off and he reacts unproportionally but never apologizes. he believes the other person should apologize for making him mad, and sees himself as the victim in every situation. he can hurt someone emotionally or physically and express no guilt. he will say or do things that are inappropriate, and will disrespect clearly given boundaries. he's a master manipulator and faces no consequences for his harm.

knowing a person - working alone with one for sometimes up to five hours a day - with anger issues like this made me afraid to go to work. so for a while, i found it ironic that i.e.d. diagnosed liam is my favorite character, but then i realized the difference: remorse.

right now, i'm editing a 20k piece on liam's childhood and i.e.d. that i wrote, and i read a line where i said, "his anger was a part of him, but it wasn't who he was," and i think it's pretty accurate when comparing liam vs the person i know irl. omitting the one time at the beginning of s5b after the library attack, no one throughout the show ever expressed a need to "walk on eggshells" around liam. he was a safe person who occasionally got angrier than a typical person when in an unfair or unfamiliar situation. when he did have episodes, he would get extremely upset, react poorly, but then come to and feel overwhelming guilt, then be over it. unlike my co-worker, who gets upset and reacts similarly, but then feels no responsibility for his actions, and holds a grudge about it for the next week and a half.

i told my boss and the sergeant (i worked for a branch of the sheriff's station) that i was afraid of him but neither did much of anything. more recently, i told a deputy after he approached me first, and he said some of the stuff i was explaining was harassment and assault. in recent weeks, for something unrelated to me, said co-worker punched a wall and was found out and put on probation. he then pleaded with the boss and the sheriff of the county and got let off it.

back to liam. despite his i.e.d., liam himself was bullied and had been physically assaulted, and past a few hits, hasn't really gone to the extreme of assault. sure he hits theo, but theo hits him, too, and eggs him on constantly. he was troubled by the fact that hayden was still upset with him from 6th grade, and when he upset her a second time, tried nonstop to make it up to her. he breaks a locker in s6b and immediately regrets it. i can admit, attacking gabe can be counted as assault, but again - i.e.d, plus he just found out mason was badly injured, and as soon as theo distracts him, he releases gabe instantly.

my point is, he was embarrassed to admit his diagnosed anger disorder to scott and stiles. he is remorseful and regretful whenever he hurts someone or something. when he's not in an episode, he's both kind and exuberant, with a golden retriever-like personality. he's not someone i would fear even with the knowledge of his i.e.d. my undiagnosed, remorseless co-worker, however, is someone i do fear, and he's given me so many reasons to. so many people let their anger control and define them, but liam doesn't. he tries to control it - he hurts himself, even, trying to control it - but when he fails, he takes responsibility for it.

now i'm not sure what the point of me writing this was. maybe i'm trying to work out to myself how liam's my favorite despite seeing him angry, and seeing him punch things, when i know someone irl who does that, too, but is most certainly not my favorite person. maybe this is me once again praising liam for the person he is and tries to be (idc that he's fictional, come at me). maybe it's just me over-analyzing people and their psyches, i don't know. regardless, here's my rant about my absolute adoration for this character, and good day <33

[bratbarzal]

fancy sharing any of those uncle lukey headcannons you mentioned?

basing this off of lih!luke and his relationship with baby cheeto from oys!! (you don’t have to have read either to read this tbh it’s just random thoughts I have about that dynamic but I guess it translates into him as an uncle in general!!) also these are off the top of the dome if more come to me I’ll touch back on it bc I love uncle lukey!!

ok so I love translating real life traits into fic so I feel like a lot of luke-isms translate really well into being an uncle (I say with my only real qualification being that I am an auntie with 6 years experience and a PHD in being a niblet's favourite person and I feel like I have a decent read by now on what kids appreciate in an aunt/uncle bc it’s the biggest part of my life lmao)

like when everyone calls him a lowkey nerd, like he loves history, and he loves chess, and he loves movies based on real stories, and his favourite game is rummikub lmao I feel like he would use those sorts of things when it comes to spending time with a kid and he’s such a yapper so I feel like they all combine really well into something engaging for a kid

Uncle!Luke who read that talking to babies is good for their development, so he has a million one sided conversations with Cheeto and just reacts to every face she makes like it’s a response - like she’ll just stare at him wide eyed and he’ll be like, “Ugh Jack said the exact same thing.”

and if he’s ever looking after her for like a morning or a day, he’ll take her somewhere that he can google beforehand so he can reel off all the facts about it like a fountain of knowledge and so when she’s older she thinks he’s the smartest person because Uncle!Luke knows everything about everything. He knows about the history of the places they go, he knows about the animals at the farm or the zoo, he knows about pirates that sailed in the ship that’s in the park (that he made up but Cheeto would never know lmao)

And he’ll tell her what all the Disney movies are based off of, or like any of the kids books he reads to her, he’ll go off tangent - like he’ll read The Stompysaurus and end up keeping her way up past her bedtime telling her all about different dinosaurs

And he’d so put on dorky voices for every character when he’s reading a book - like Cheeto won’t let him read Bluey At The Beach unless he’s doing his very best (awful) Australian accent

He puts a lot of thought into what he’d want to be called, because it has to be something that still works when kids are a bit older and doesn’t seem weird for him to be called, and he thinks Lukey is fine enough, but Cheeto ends up calling him “ook” because she can’t quite get her L’s right when she first starts talking and “ook” is an easy enough sound - Jack thinks it’s hilarious until he’s “ack” and it sounds too much like a “yack” sort of noise

Uncle!Luke is always the first port of call though, because his brothers are so used to being the better known ones to everyone else, it just works that Luke beats them both out on the uncle scale, and he won’t let Jack hear the end of it.

He’s always the quickest to drop to the floor when he sees Cheeto, and when she can walk she’ll just plonk herself into his lap and carry on playing with her blocks or whatever, and Luke will just absentmindedly hoard them all and hand them to her one by one while Nico and Poppy are telling him where everything is while he watches her for date night, and he can hold like 6 in one hand at a time while her tiny fingers just about wrap around one

And Uncle!Luke never dumbs stuff down or makes things seem like they’re too complex for a kid to understand he just figures out a way to explain what he can and redirects to Poppy and Nico when it’s something they should probably handle like he just talks to a kid like he’d talk to anyone else there’s never a baby voice or made up words

But also when she gets siblings and sometimes having babies in the house is harder for older siblings, and they’re sort of forced into responsibility a lot earlier than they should be, he makes sure to still treat her like a kid where it matters and he’ll play pretend with her and be the big dumb dragon guarding the castle where Princess Cheeto is locked away lmao

Also like my favourite Luke!lore is that he’s an Eater ™️ and I love the concept that the only person he would share his food with is a child (and LIH!reader gf obvs) like he gives “joey doesn’t share food” but he’d break a sandwich in half for Cheeto and let her steal his fries

[invadernei]

So... A friend of mine asked me to post my analysis of Ekubo (@reigenlvr, thank you very much for the encouragement and for editing this stuff!!)

So here it is.

It includes some of my personal thoughts, canon-based speculations, and analysis of the series itself. It might be a bit messy, since it is basically my DMs combined into one post and edited. Sorry about that... Also, English is not my first language, so this analysis may contain some weird phrasing 😅

Anyways...

It all started with me complaining about how sometimes Ekubo is completely looked over (despite being the third main character of the show) or mischaracterised as being just... mean for no reason or malicious, and there's nothing behind it... Well, I believe he has a very complex and colourful personality, just like Mob and Reigen do. And in addition to this, he has HUNDREDS of years behind him, so... he is very deserving of being analyzed and understood. So here we go...

Ekubo!

His entire arc is about how human he is and how his "evil spirit" attitude is fake. He needs to uphold that image of himself because he doesn’t realize what he actually wants in life and instead plays a familiar role. Or maybe he’s so deep in denial that he has to. Anyway, even in canon, he shows how empathetic he actually is (he's quite good at reading human emotions and behaviour + his whole relationship with Mob and especially that one scene in the burning Kageyama house—ohhh, I could talk about it forever). And his whole motivation is based on a desire to make people happy?? Yeah, his methods are kinda evil-spirit-ish, but that’s about it. His first religion was created with "the most peaceful way possible" in mind (and he made that decision before he even met Mob!!). In the Broccoli arc, he directly says that everyone will be happier with the Divine Tree... and worship him as a god—yep, another evil spirit thing—but based on everything we saw before that, I doubt he would want to get to that position by any other means. He wants to be a beloved god, not a feared one, and that perfectly aligns with his final realisation: "I want to be seen and acknowledged, I want a friend." He clearly likes people very much and is fascinated by them.

I believe he did actually learn some behavioral patterns from the spirit world (which is very cruel in nature). Like how he tried to kill Mob the moment he realized Mob could be a real threat. He knows very well what the rules of power vs. weakness are. He has difficulties understanding some human concepts, like true kindness, and especially applying them to himself. I would even speculate that the idea of someone valuing him for anything other than pure power had never crossed his mind before the Divine Tree arc.

But what he learned in the spirit world mostly applies to how he reacts to his environment, not how he acts himself. He forces an evil spirit attitude onto himself, but it is hinted that he either despises other spirits or is afraid of them. He doesn’t like them. And deep down, he probably doesn’t want to act the way he does—but how could it be any other way? At least before someone truly saw him and trusted him.

A couple of side notes:

Omg, how excited he is about romance and romantic relationships!! Did you see him in the second season?? The pure teenage excitement about gossip and Mob’s love life??

And I think it’s worth mentioning that in s2e8, he messes with Mob’s bully in a rather nonviolent way... while Ritsu straight-up strangles the guy. What’s up with these middle schoolers, for real...

Anyways, back to the analysis.

Why is Ekubo different from other evil spirits? It’s definitely not just because he’s "special." The anime doesn’t appreciate the concept of "being special," and it actually has a point. So... Ekubo being simply "not like the other spirits" just because he is that way is an underwhelming idea to me. I think he gradually becomes different over the course of his existence because he’s capable of self-reflection (as we’ve seen in the Broccoli arc). He questions himself, his position in the world, and his desires. Maybe not fully consciously, since it’s shown that he only truly realizes his desires and goals during the Divine Tree arc. But some of his character traits are not typical for an evil spirit, even at the very beginning of the show. So he must have done something. It was his half-conscious choice to change himself. Intelligent spirits seem to retain some of their human personalities and emotional responses (biker spirit in s1e1, creepy spirit in s1e2, Mogami, spirit from the 2nd OVA audio additions, etc), but whether they remain more human or turn into full-blown, power-hungry monsters or creeps depends on the individual spirit.

Speaking of Ekubo's backstory, I especially like two ideas:

1. At some point in his past, Ekubo encountered a spirit who was more interested in killing people than eating other spirits. Hanging around with that spirit gave Ekubo a twisted idea of friendship and a resentment toward harming human beings.

2. Ekubo has always had hypnotic powers and spent a lot of time inside human minds, observing dreams and emotions. Instead of using that ability to increase his power or cause harm, he developed some kind of empathy and formed his goal of becoming a god—a sincere desire to make people happy, distorted by his evil-spirit nature.

But those are just my thoughts about what might have happened to him... I actually like that, in canon, his backstory is basically non-existent, leaving us to analyze his traits in the present and guess what his long journey was like. I prefer it that way.

What we can be almost sure of is that the spirit world is cruel, creepy, and unforgiving. Everything is about power there. "To eat or to be eaten" is an unbreakable law. It’s very likely that Ekubo had to deal with some really terrible things—from the raw pain of being devoured to some very messed-up betrayal (if he ever tried to connect with someone of his own kind). Also, it’s possible that he believes (at least vaguely) in some Great Force responsible for the order of the universe. Firstly, he wanted to become a god himself. Secondly, he knows (or believes) in "paradise" (where some people go after death and some do not). Thirdly, he ranted about "I don't truly understand how everything works" in the spin-off...

This is mostly speculation on my part, but I don’t think it contradicts anything in canon, and it adds some interesting layers to Ekubo as a being who is not quite dead but not quite alive. If he believes in such things to some extent, he’s most likely afraid of those powerful forces. And I suppose that this fear, combined with the dangers of the spirit world, might be part of his motivation to become a god. It’s his desire to distance himself from all of it—and finally feel safe.

All in all... Ekubo deserves all the love in the world. And all the nice things. And all the happiness. He’s as human as all of us. And I don’t think any other character in any other piece of media I know resonates so strongly with me or makes me feel such warm, tender love. He’s beautiful.

...And also, I wrote like 70 fanfics where he’s one of the main characters, so—

(and some of my Ekubo doodles in addition, i really really like him that much ☺️☺️)

[yuseirra]

Supplemental interpretation of Mizi’s character (Scene-by-scene breakdown of the new comic)

This post is a follow-up to the previous analysis I wrote last time! I think reading this will help things make more sense~

It's really, really intriguing to interpret characters with layers to them. I really enjoy doing that!

Before we begin, when doing character interpretation or psychological analysis, here’s a helpful tip—

It’s important to pay attention not just to how the character evaluates themselves, but also to how other characters react to them.

For example, if someone has a tendency toward self-loathing or self-deprecation, what they say about themselves might not be all that accurate—even if they’re the ones saying it. That’s why we need to keep in mind that a person’s self-evaluation isn’t always something we can fully trust.

Sure, sometimes crucial aspects of a character’s inner world only come out through their self-perception—but often, it’s the people closest to them, their overall behavior, and how others view them that end up giving a clearer, more fair assessment.

You know those moments. Like when a hero saves tons of people but still says, “I couldn’t do enough. I’m not good enough…” Or the opposite—when someone hurts a bunch of innocent people and says, “They had it coming. I was just doing what was right!”

So while a character’s internal monologue matters, we also need to take a step back and look at what they’ve actually done—their past actions, and how others respond to them—if we want to get a fuller, more accurate picture.

At the same time, we really need to factor in the situation they’re in. The emotional pressure someone feels when they’re in a stable and happy state is very different from the kind of feelings that come out when they’re in a chaotic, extreme state. That difference totally affects interpretation.

So overall, it’s about putting all of that together and looking at the full picture.

And that’s exactly why this new Alien stage comic is such a great one to analyze...

Of course, my interpretation is still subjective, and I could totally be wrong! But this is a topic I really care about, and I genuinely enjoy digging into this kind of stuff. It’s something I take seriously.

I feel pretty confident in my ability to break down complex psychological layers. I might be biased toward interpreting people positively, but in this case, I think I’m reading it well.

So! Picking up from the last post—let’s break things down scene by scene.

Here’s the situation:

Mizi had rushed onto the Blink Gone stage to try and save Till. But Till ends up dying right in front of her eyes. Mizi is devastated—mentally falling apart while staring at Till’s blood on her hands.

Then she sees a hallucination of Sua.

Sua is someone Mizi couldn’t save either—and she’s also the person who mattered most to Mizi. So this whole moment overlaps with the memory of Sua’s death.

But then Mizi suddenly thinks something strange:

“Feel like a waste?”

That word—“waste” (in the original Korean: 아깝다)—is super important. Depending on how you interpret it, it could completely change how you see Mizi.

So here’s where it gets interesting:

From a reader’s perspective, Mizi saying “what a waste” to herself could be taken as: “Ugh, another useful pawn gone. Shame—I’d been grooming that one for a while.” Basically implying that Mizi is cold and calculating, and everything we’ve seen of her so far was just an act.

But if you look into it a bit more, that interpretation doesn’t really hold up.

If that were the case, Mizi wouldn’t be crying so hard, crushed by grief, and hallucinating dead loved ones. Even if she felt some practical loss, she wouldn’t be emotionally wrecked like this. She wouldn’t be experiencing this level of human sadness and pain.

So Mizi’s emotional reaction to the situation is just as important as what she says. People don’t think the same way when they’re in a stable state vs. when they’re emotionally overwhelmed—it wouldn’t be fair to judge both from the same standard.

Mizi might be judging herself, thinking: “I was just using people, wasn’t I…” but if you look at what she actually did—her behavior—it doesn’t line up with that harsh self-judgment.

And we can get a better idea of what Mizi really meant by “waste” through the next scene, where she gets confronted by that guy who hits her.

He calls her “cunning,” saying boys and girls can’t be real friends—and accuses her of pretending not to know that Till liked her, just so she could keep being close with him.

What the boy is saying is basically, “You’re stringing him along. You know how he feels, but you’re acting clueless. You’re fake.”

While saying it "must be nice," being her, pretending to be sweet and all innocent, getting people to love her, he slaps her across the face. (Just before this, he remarks on how guys and girls always end up “mating,” and Mizi rightfully calls it kind of gross.)

Now here’s where Mizi’s immediate reaction matters:

She says sorry to the boy who just slapped her face and calls her disgusting and filthy.

She tells him, “I’m sorry for upsetting you”—but she’s also confused, like, “What exactly did I do wrong? I don’t get it.”

Then she says again:

“It’s a shame.” (in English, "It's a shame" / in Korean, again, 아깝다< it's the same word in the original KR version)

What’s behind that, you may wonder:

It is that Mizi tried. She genuinely made the effort to be kind to everyone. When there were things she couldn’t respond to or reciprocate, she just smiled and played it nice. To her, that was her way of being considerate. She really put in effort.

So from her perspective, the fact that her kindness didn’t work here—that it hurt someone instead—that’s what feels like “a waste.” and "a shame" It’s like:

“If you’d stayed like the others— believing I really was to be completely innocent, not knowing anything—it would’ve been easier between us. But now I’ve ended up hurting you. That sucks. That’s a loss for both of us.”

Her saying “I don’t know what I did wrong” —it’s that she really believed she was doing her best. So if that’s still seen as manipulative or “fake,” it just invalidates all the effort she put in.

She’s thinking:

“But I tried! I acted that way to be thoughtful! Everyone was happier that way. I thought no one would get hurt if I just smiled and played along. But now this guy’s saying I’m two-faced?”

“Then… what was I supposed to do instead? I don’t get it. This really hurts.”

That’s Mizi’s heart there at that scene. The way she’s been acting—that’s a core part of her identity, but it wasn't acknowledged and it gave her pain.

So she runs away crying.

And from this point, Mizi starts to have serious doubts about the way she’s always acted.

She ends up telling Sua about what happened—because she’s upset. She just needed to talk to her closest friend about it.

But even then, Mizi says stuff like, “I'm sure I did something wrong,” and “He’s not a bad person, really.”

Part of her really believes that, and part of her wants to believe that.

She wants to think that maybe, if she had handled it differently, the relationship could’ve stayed okay.

So she tries to focus on the good things in life to pick herself back up, saying stuff like: “And right now, I’m just happy because I’m with you, Sua. I'm sooo happy!”

But Sua’s not in the same emotional place. Because of what she’s been through, she's distressed. Moreover, she’s not the type to force herself to act cheerful just to lift the mood.

So Sua replies: “I’m not really happy. (...) You don't get dragged around like me.” And then adds: “Must be nice(being you) right?”

She doesn’t join in Mizi’s effort to stay upbeat. Instead, she takes Mizi's efforts as something 100% genuine, that Mizi "has it nice"

The reason Mizi reacts so strongly to that—“Must be nice”—is because she’s not. Not at all. Her head is a mess, her heart’s a mess, and for Sua to not see that—to not notice how much effort she’s been putting into staying cheerful—makes her feel overwhelmed with anger and sadness, even just for a moment. Moreover, this line also brought her back to that time when that boy earlier had called her out for being "manipulative" and supposedly having her way with people acting innocent because it happened to be phrased the same way.

It’s like… she’d really hoped Sua would understand her. And in that moment, they just didn’t connect. That’s where the despair came from. Mizi really treasures Sua, but even Sua didn’t notice how hard she’s been working to stay bright. Instead, she just assumed Mizi was feeling carefree and smiling for real. So Mizi snapped.

But then right after that moment, when she hits Sua out of that emotional outburst, she’s hit with the crushing thought that she just did to Sua what that boy who slapped her did. And that fills her with intense self-hatred. What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t have done that… She starts beating herself up inside.

Their facial expressions in that scene are pretty intense and eerie… but emotionally, that’s what’s going on.

After that, Mizi starts to believe—Maybe I really am as manipulative as that boy said I was.

And then, what she does next is go find Till. This is something really worth paying attention to.

If Mizi actually had the intention of using Till, then she would've kept pretending she didn’t know anything, acting all innocent.

But instead, she goes straight to him and says it plainly:

“Till, you know the one I love the most in the world is Sua, right? Is it that hard to not like me?”

Mizi really does care about Till. Maybe not in the same way as she does for Sua, but as a friend, she cares deeply. So she thinks she needs to be honest with him. She tells him—I can’t give you what you want. Even if you love me, I love Sua. So wouldn’t it be better for you to not to love me?

Why? Because that boy had called her manipulative for keeping her feelings hidden. And now she’s scared—If I keep pretending nothing’s wrong and just act like a normal friend, maybe Till will end up feeling betrayed too. She wants to prevent that. If she didn’t care about Till, she wouldn’t even bother.

And the thing is—Till already knew. He knew Mizi had feelings for Sua. (Side note: yup, I called this in my earlier analysis!) So Mizi was never leading Till on or anything; he just liked Mizi because that's how he felt about her.

So in a way, Mizi and Till have a pretty healthy relationship—they both know what’s going on between each other, and they acknowledge it. But Mizi’s head is all tangled up from what that boy said, and it’s making her question everything. Was I just using Till this whole time?

When she tells Till that she loves Sua, and he says he still likes her, Mizi asks him:

“Why do you like me so much, anyway?”

Because she doesn’t believe she can give anything back. She doesn’t think she can return his feelings… even though Mizi, just by being herself, is already a light in Till’s life—she just doesn’t realize it.

Till, so sincerely, just says, “Because… you’re pretty…” He’s simply being honest about how he sees her. But for Mizi, that ends up reinforcing all the wrong thoughts.

Because the part of her that worked so hard to be cheerful and sweet—what she now sees as “fake”—is exactly what Till is saying he likes. So she thinks, He’s rejecting this honest version of me. Even he loved the version of me that pretended to be pure and happy. If I want him to be happy, I have to keep pretending. That’s what everyone wants from me. I guess I have to live my whole life putting on this mask, tricking people...

And that’s why she lets out that hollow laugh.

Then she ends up viewing all her past efforts—being kind to people, staying cheerful—as nothing more than:

“I did all of that for myself. Just so I could survive. I used everyone.”

But that’s completely the opposite of the truth. She actually put up that cute and cheerful energy for everyone around her.

If everything she did at Anakt Garden—living with the other kids from a young age—was really just her cold calculation to survive, then she wouldn’t be hurting this much now over Till, over Sua, or anything else.

If it was all just part of some scheme she set up, she’d be smirking right now going, “It all went according to plan. What idiots.”

But instead, Mizi’s in a place where she’s seeing hallucinations, hating herself so much she’s breaking down.

She’s thinking, Maybe everything I’ve done was just for me. Maybe I’m selfish. And she’s lashing herself with those thoughts. That’s how much she hates who she thinks she is.

But the truth is—Mizi really did want everyone to survive. Till, Sua, Ivan, Hyuna—all of them were precious to her. That’s why when Luka provoked her with Sua, she lost control and didn't care about the whole contest. If she only cared about winning or surviving, she wouldn’t have been furious about it, she wouldn’t have snapped like that.

Mizi cares and has a big heart. That's why she broke down when Sua died. That’s why she looked so relieved and lit up when Till reached out to her in the Blink Gone Stage, That's why and how she risked her life to fire a gun and save Hyuna, while nearly having gotten hit by a bullet herself. What really took place just before this comic was that Mizi couldn't bear to leave Till behind, so she snuck back into the alien stage show and held out her hand to him. She was nearly killed herself, and had barely escaped with her life, and yet, she returned to that stage for someone else's. That's so far from taking advantage of others, it's a choice she wouldn't ever have made if everything she did was just to survive.

Mizi using others for her own ends? If that really were to be the case, then when Hyuna saved her, she wouldn’t have joined the resistance or risked going back to the stage to help the other children.

She RISKS her life to save others, and actively jumps in to help. That's what's consistent about her, and it's what describes her as a person.

If she had really just been using the other kids, they all wouldn’t care about her so much. They wouldn’t try to protect her the way they do.

Mizi is devastated right now because nothing turned out the way she wanted. She couldn’t save anyone. And thinking that it’s all her fault—thinking she failed to save them—feels like a punishment she deserves. This is how and why her thoughts are spiraling this way in this particular comic.