#specifically people who aren't on the extreme end of either side and are willing to provide a bit of nuance

[tallerthantale]

Neil Gaiman hasn't been removed yet

Petition for investigation of Gaiman

Petition to fire Gaiman from Good Omens

@shakti-tiger I think a big part of the issue is people thinking Neil Gaiman has already 'stepped down.' That is not the current state of the situation, but if you imagine the perspective of a person starting from that premise you can see why it might not feel necessary to put the removal demand in the petition.

And yes, that's extremely frustrating, but it is not the same as people not caring. It's people being manipulated by a person who seems to have built his character sheet around manipulating people.

So for people not following developments closely:

What we know is that Gaiman's lawyers have informed the media that he has put forward a hypothetical version of 'stepping back' that he is willing to accept. We don't know much about the specifics, but I have a speculative impression. If his terms were acceptable to Amazon / the Pratchett Estate / the other employees of the show, I would expect us to have heard so by now. We have not, so I feel it is reasonable to conclude that what he is proposing is, for whatever reason, not an acceptable offer.

We also don't have anything saying he has been fired from any of his positions. Entertainment contracts almost always have morality clauses that can be enforced even in the absence of convictions. That's because even if it was the sort of crime that reliably produces convictions, that process takes years, and the industry wants the power to be able to respond to public scandal quickly when they decide it is profitable to do so.

Given that we have no indication that Amazon is accepting Neil's offer, or any indication that a morality clause has been enforced on Gaiman, my impression is that there is an ongoing dispute where Gaiman is threatening some form of retaliation against the show if they enforce the morality clause in order to try and bargain for some kind of wishy washy partial but not meaningful reduction of his role.

If that's what's happening, it is mostly going to be in the hands of various legal teams involved, arguing over semantic details we may never learn about. However, I still think fandom can add support to the 'enforce the morality clause' side by expressing that wish to Amazon, either through the petitions that cite the allegations, or if you have Prime, by cancelling along with a message that states you will reactivate when Gaiman is removed. (Or when the show is cancelled if that is your line.) Personally I think removal is the better option for long term industry reform.

I am committed to not promoting the show by making fan content during the run-up and release of Season 3 (and probably for a year or so after) unless he is publicly removed for morality clause violations. There are actual material reasons that represents A CHOICE on my part. I had a lot of concerns that I was going to end up overpromising and underdelivering on fan content, though I never expected this to be the reason why. 100% I stand by the choice I'm making to pause Good Omens fan content, but I recognize for a lot of artists it really is not an easy choice to make. I will always be against any form of harassment towards people continuing to make fan works.

@chocolatepot at the same time it is very difficult to organize boycotting efforts off a platform of 'everyone's choices are equally valid.' The people with the most power to be heard by Amazon are the ones with Prime who are in a position to strategically drop it. Put together a Ven diagram of "people deeply committed to voting with their dollar for social justice" and "people who have an Amazon Prime account they aren't particularly dependent on keeping." How much overlap do you think there is in the middle of that Ven Diagram? Not a lot. A meaningful organized effort would require persuading people to make choices they are not inclined to make, and that does require at some point suggesting that making a different choice is less than ideal.

For people who already don't have Prime or can't cancel because they need it for work, fan engagement is the option that's left. But it's going to be a similar issue with fan works. The artists, writers, shitposters, ect… that have the most influence are also the ones most entrenched into continuing to make their content, in many cases as their form of income. In many cases as their form of social support in the midst of their own ongoing harrowing life circumstances.

I don't come away from this with any clear position on what level of persuasive language is appropriate for organizing action, but I want to encourage everyone to be kind to each other, and consider where others are coming from. Right now I think focusing on keeping people informed that Gaiman has not actually been removed is the best way to go.

[noperopesaredope]

I try my best to not get too political on my blog, especially in complicated and divisive situations like these, but I feel like people need a reminder:

You can support Palestine without being an antisemitic asshole

You can support Israel without being a racist dickhead

You can support either side without generalizing either group or saying that the other group should all die

[crumb]

please tell me you guys watched that video Noah Schnapp put out trying to backtrack and save his pathetic career. Please listen very carefully to the language and words he uses. He's choosing his wording VERY carefully in order to save his career and try to pacify those who support Palestine without actually denouncing genocide or zionism. "I feel my thoughts and beliefs have been so far misconstrued..." babe you were yelling from ig post to ig post about being pro israel, calling Palestinians terrorists, and being a proud zionist. How has that been misconstrued?? "I only want peace and safety and security for all innocent people affected by this conflict" He makes sure to use the qualifier 'innocent' several times in the video when referring to Palestinians, victims of a genocide not a conflict. But as we know, zionists don't see Palestinians as innocent so who is he talking about? This kind of tentative language helps him try to appear like he actually cares about Palestine while still condemning hamas without addressing the actual root of the issue—israel and the IOF. "We all hope for the same things..." Do we? You're a zionist. Zionism is settler colonialism and based in white supremacy. Please be more specific on what you hope for. "...That being, those innocent people being held hostage in Gaza be returned to their families. And equally hope for an end to the loss of innocent life in Palestine..." Zionists LOVE to go on and on about the hostages without mentioning the very real danger those hostages face from israel and the IOF bombs themselves. Israel is carpet bombing Palestine indiscriminately when they very much have the tech to make extremely detailed and targeted attacks. Did you see the way they targeted the specific apartment unit in Lebanon? In Gaza they're wiping out whole city blocks. Israel and the IOF don't actually care about the hostages. If they did they wouldn't be razing Gaza and boasting about their plans to use the land for beach condos. If israel and the IOF actually cared about israelis, why are they basically using the Hannibal Directive? Especially at the music festival on October 7th where the IOF killed a number of their own civilians. If israel cared about the hostages, why aren't they willing to release the hundreds of Palestinian hostages they have who are being jailed illegally and without charges? 'oh but they did! They released some during the pause so they could get hamas to release some israeli hostages' yeah and then the IOF rounded up and captured more Palestinians than they released that very same day. "...I think anyone with any ounce of humanity would hope for an end to the hostility on both sides. I stand against any killing of any innocent people" Once again with the manipulative qualifiers 'both sides' and 'innocent people'. How can you expect an occupied people who have been living through apartheid and genocide for 75 years to not eventually fight back? To not understand why October 7th happened you have to be either completely uneducated about even the most basic history of Palestine and/or so deeply entrenched in propaganda and denial that it doesn't even matter if you do know about the history because you truly believe you deserve an ethnostate on a piece of land that has inhabited several diverse groups over thousands of years. It was never a land of 1 singular homogeneous group. To want it to be that, is actually insane.

[antianakin]

Honestly when people call Cassian Andor morally gray, mostly from the movie, I kinda side-eye? Because he doesn't really fit that. He's, he's a spy but the two things I see called morally gray are:

Shooting the other spy in the beginning, which was a sad choice to make, but the man was injured and they were being chased. There's no way for him to carry the man to safety while fleeing the stormtroopers, and leaving him there would have been a fate worse that death, we know what the Empire does to suspected spies, along with not risking intel leaks.

And setting out to assassinate Jyn's father, who at that point, nobody had confirmation he was anything other than a man loyal to the Empire, building a weapon of mass destruction. Its reasonable to think getting rid of the head engineer behind that project would either delay it or cause issues. The Rebellion was operating with less information than we, the audience had.

Both hard decisions made during hard times, but to me, Cassian Andor at least is an average guy, trying to make the best decision he can in basically the worst times ever.

I mean, I think that a lot of this is what MAKES Cassian morally gray. Being morally gray doesn't have to mean he doesn't care, or that his ultimate goal isn't something generally good and altruistic, either. Cassian is fighting for the greater good, he's trying to take down a tyrannical fascist Empire, he's doing what he's doing because he firmly believes that it's what's best for the entire galaxy and because it will ultimately save a lot of lives in the long run.

Being morally gray just generally means that the character operates outside of the more strict dichotomies of "good" and "evil." Luke Skywalker is pretty unequivocally "good" and he would likely never do the things Cassian does even though they both are aiming for the same goal. Luke would never even AGREE to assassinate Jyn's father, especially if he has to use Jyn to find her father in the first place. This would be something that Luke would consider wrong and he'd refuse to do it, even though there are reasons to think Galen might be working for the Empire and that it could be better for everyone if he was dead. And on the other end of the spectrum you have someone like Palpatine, or even Anakin (specifically during the OT) who aren't out for the greater good at all and are always motivated solely by selfish greed and nothing else.

So someone like Cassian operates somewhere between these two extremes. Cassian is willing to kill an innocent man who is his ally because he cannot take the risk of either of them getting captured by the Empire. He can presumably trust that HE'D hold up under torture, but he cannot trust that this informant (who has been pretty anxious and flustered so far) would do the same. Cassian's options are to stay and get captured with him, escape without him, or give him a quick and painless death and then escape on his own. The honorable option that we'd probably see a character like Luke choose is the first one, staying with the informant and trying to find a way for both of them to escape even though it runs a VERY high risk of both of them being captured. Killing an innocent man is an objectively evil thing to do, but Cassian looks at all of his options and weighs the risks and ultimately chooses the option that is best for his cause even if it requires doing something objectively evil.

And you ARE supposed to recognize that. There's this whole moment immediately after Cassian kills the guy that Diego Luna makes this really devastating face where you can tell he HATES what he just did, he HATES that he felt like he had to make that choice at all, but then he lets it go and escapes. This is not something that he just brushes off like it's nothing, it's something that does weigh on him and that's part of his whole arc within this film. He has to decide how to live with the choices he has made and the reasons he has made them and whether those reasons are worth what it costs to him personally. He obviously ultimately decides NOT to kill Galen because he cares about Jyn and he knows that killing Galen will mean ruining the connection that's been beginning to build between himself and Jyn. For the moment, he chooses to care about Jyn and Jyn's happiness more than he cares about the cause of the Rebellion. And at the end, he and the other volunteers all choose to go to Scarif because they cannot just abandon this cause that they've all given up so much for, that they've all had to do objectively evil things for. It HAS to be worth something, killing that informant HAS to be worth it or what does that make him? Without the cause, he's just a murderer.

And all of this is part of what makes him such a compelling character. Often these days we see morally gray characters in the position of the villain, where they have perhaps a sympathetic motivation but they're going about it all wrong and they have to be stopped because they've let their desire for a better world be corrupted into simply a desire for power. Some of these stories get done better than others, obviously, but this can be a really powerful narrative. But Cassian sits slightly differently where he is unequivocally one of The Good Guys, but the narrative posits the idea that sometimes sacrifices are required to achieve "the greater good." When your enemy is pure evil and willing to use tricks and lies to beat you, sometimes you have to give up some of your own moral code in order to beat them at their own game and protect as many people as possible. Sometimes being selfless looks like setting yourself on fire so that everyone else can stay warm.

And like I mentioned in the Andor post that I assume this is probably in reaction to, what I love most about this is how it relates to the Prequels Jedi and the themes therein, the struggle they have with maintaining who they are and the morals they live by when there's a galactic civil war going on and the other side of it is willing to commit massive atrocities in order to win. By fighting in the war, the Jedi are having to compromise, but if they refused to fight at all, they would lose everything that made them who they are. The Council chooses to commit treason in order to save the Republic from its own elected Chancellor. It's objectively morally wrong to commit treason, but it lands morally gray because of the motivation and the circumstances of the choice they are making.

Often doing the right thing isn't the same as doing the easy thing. Being selfless usually comes with making sacrifices. We see the the bigger "cosmic" version of this with the Prequels Jedi during the Clone War, but Rogue One and Andor show us another version of it from the perspective of the little people, those whose names and stories will never be remembered by history, but whose sacrifices paved the way for people like Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa to step in and be the heroes who took down the Empire. Cassian and the Prequels Jedi fall into a very similar thematic category in their stories and it's honestly SUCH a compelling story and I love the way Rogue One and Andor chose to follow up on that theme.

[theneighborhoodwatch]

ramble about wally & home's codependent swag. do it. you know you want to /lh

sorry for sitting so long on this one, anon. it's good to let thoughts Ferment sometimes. anyway - [pulls up a chair to sit down on it backwards, facing you]

so, the way i see it: it all comes back to home, yeah? home is not just the house - home is also the name of the town, it is very likely the town itself, and that town may be (as far as we know) the entire world. the very Concept of the home been discussed by clown as a central theme of welcome home a few times on his blog. when i say that home is everything, i do mean everything, and i don't think there's anyone for whom that rings more true than wally.

i know i link back to my older posts a lot, but i swear this one is relevant bc i wanna elaborate on a point that i make in the first half of it: the way i see it (as of the time of this writing) home, in all senses of the word, is wally's top priority. which is not to say that his devotion towards home supersedes everything else, but that everything else sort of feeds back into it by design. the neighbors? they are there to inhabit home. we, the audience? we are there to perceive home and round out its population. the WHRP*? they said it themselves - they're there to make that fucking house a home. home is everything, and in turn, everything is for the sake of preserving home. wally cares for his neighbors, and he cares for Us, but would either of those still be the case if there was no home to preserve? i'm not sure.

there is a catch to this, though. of course there is. wally's identity already seems tied pretty heavily to other people; he learns from his neighbors, and he does so on the audience's behalf. given everything i've written in the above paragraph, this can arguably be an extension of his devotion to home, however genuine those relationships may be in their own right. in other words, home (more specifically the restoration/preservation of home) is not only wally's chief motivation, but as far as he's concerned, the reason he exists at all. i think a lot about these tags that @pretty-in-possible (hope you don't mind the tag) left on a post of mine describing their image of wally:

and i had something very similar in mind. if wally's goal truly is the restoration/preservation of home - in this context, his raison d'être, the basis for his entire sense of self - then i can imagine why he would be willing to follow his original role as closely as he could even 50 years after the end of the original show. i can imagine that outgrowing that role in any capacity would feel like a sin. i can imagine that watching his friends outgrow theirs, or at least express a desire to do so, would seem extremely reckless to him, if not an outright betrayal.

("wait," you might say. "doesn't tampering with the site technically count as him adapting/evolving past his original role as audience surrogate?" "yes 8]" i would say. i would not elaborate, and then we would move on.)

i've mostly been talking about wally's side of things, and the reason for that is mostly that wally is just easier to speculate about. home is such a mystery that some people aren't even sure if they're the same being that was on the original show; i've seen people posit that whatever home is now, it is Not what they were originally, either that they're undead or that they've since become a husk for Something Else to inhabit, or some third thing i'm forgetting. either way, i think it's interesting that as attached as wally is to home, even he doesn't seem to be able to assess whatever their needs are with 100% accuracy - if the duet audio is to be believed, there's at least Some guesswork involved. who's to say that wally isn't just hearing what he wants to hear, at least some of the time?

i wonder - how does home feel about being an Embodiment, not of just the town, but of the very word "home?" are they frustrated with the fact that even wally, their own inhabitant, can never fully understand them, and has become resentful? do they appreciate the effort regardless, but feel a growing impatience gnawing at them day by day? are they apathetic at best towards wally, but need him to fulfill some goal or another, since they're an inanimate building? either way, i can't help but feel that home also relies on wally in some way; perhaps not as heavily as he relies on them, perhaps not in the same way or for the same reasons. but there is something Mutual there, i think.

tl;dr: these two are hurtling towards disaster and i, for one, cannot wait to see every last bit of it. here are two songs that remind me of them every time i hear them, the realization of which is often accompanied by guttural wailing.

* wally doesn't seem to have any strong feelings towards the WHRP team outside of maybe sharing the same motivation as them (i.e. restoration) but this may be because he's either hiding from them and also doesn't seem like the kind of guy to Express negative emotions, or he because he is the WHRP team - we'll see how things shake out.

[fantasyinvader]

I know a lot of people compare Houses to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, specifically the Persona series because of the school setting. I'd add that the game making allusions to various real world religions through it's symbolism, as well as using the tarot, would further this. Not to mention, how some games give the story as breadcrumbs and expect the player to figure everything out from those. However, I don't feel that Houses is meant to invoke the Law/Chaos/Neutral alignments with it's routes because Law and Chaos are meant to be two sides of the same coin, invoking what Michael Moorcock intended when he created in his works before Dungeons and Dragons bastardized the concept, whereas neutral routes tend to go against the idea of coexistence to the point of being criticized as genocide routes.

But as I thought about this, I couldn't help but feel something. Edelgard embodies the WORST qualities of the three alignments.

With Law, Edelgard seeks to impose her will upon the people of Fodlan and is willing to go to horrific lengths under an “ends justify the means” mindset. The game accuses her of wanting to replace Sothis with herself, even to the point where she takes over the Church to spread her own messages. She'll talk about how she will protect those who support her but destroy those who oppose her or her ideals. Siding with Edelgard an act of blind faith, as from the beginning of the game we've seen evidence of her evil deeds. It also means ignoring Byleth's character and changing the story, us pushing our choices onto Byleth, who would otherwise side against Edelgard of their own free will.

But then you look at Chaos, which promises freedom. Except it's a social Darwinist form of freedom, where the strong oppress the weak. Chaos tends to try and make people join it of their own free will, but is not above manipulating you as well such as in Nocturne where Lucifer's manipulations will strip the Demi-fiend of his free will in the True Demon path. And despite all the talk about YHVH being a tyrant, Lucifer is the strongest demon of the Tyrant class linking to the fact that for all her talk of freedom, Edelgard's path is supposed to lead to tyranny and oppression as she imposes her social Darwinist beliefs on Fodlan. The fact that Edelgard invokes demonic imagery, specifically Baphomet, only serves as the icing on top.

At the end of the day, however, the two aren't that far apart from each other. Hell, angels will support social Darwinism in Nocturne because it provides them a means to look down upon others. This owes to Moorcock, where either side achieving absolute victory would spell the end of the world.

Then you have the Neutral routes, where you reject heaven and hell to create a path for humanity. We could see this as Edelgard taking out the Church before removing the Agarthans. But this means wiping out those who've helped you, meaning that humans can only achieve freedom from gods and demons through the help... of gods and demons who've they made to support them. It, and the implications of genocide against non-humans, make it more human supremacist than anything. But in other instances, it's framed as putting things back to the way they used to be which is what Edelgard says she's doing in the Japanese version. This is in contrast to Fire Emblem's themes of coexistence.

Edelgard embodies the worst of each alignment, and you can't help but feel it's meant to be a criticism of the system in the first place. Such an alignment system doesn't really work, as it narrows everything down to some extreme. It leads to either ideological or religious zealotry where every choice sucks various degrees of ass. It's hard to say that a SMT game has any real morality to them, aside from spin-offs like Persona or Digital Devil Saga, as not matter the route you perform questionable actions (play SMT2 as a traditional good guy to see what I mean). Despite this, player characters have been referred to as “messiahs,” even TDE Demi-fiend.

And I think that's the true message of Houses. It's against zealotry, blind faith and how that's used to justify atrocities. I'm going to point out a few things before continuing.

Edelgard's nickname is “El,” which is an ancient word or title referring to a god. At the end of Flower, the player is made to call her that if they choose her S support.

Building off of this, the devs said that part of the theme of Flower was having different beliefs and because of those beliefs mowing down anyone who stands in your way.

Conversely they identify Byleth's flag, the save icon of Silver Snow, as the game's Fire Emblem stating it reflects the belief others place in Byleth.

Byleth gains the powers of the Goddess Sothis, while Edelgard is accused of wanting to replace the Goddess with herself as she reshapes Fodlan to suit her ideals.

Ergo, Flower is about the player believing in Edelgard over Byleth (as Byleth's default choice is to fight against her), her taking over the role of the game's god figure. But to do this requires the player to ignore what they they don't wish to see, much like Edelgard herself does. It ignores what she was working with the people you fought all through-out White Clouds, providing them aid in addition to hiring an assassin with orders to kill her classmates. In addition, it involves looking the other way when Edelgard's claims are contradicted by the worldbuilding, when acts as a hypocrite, when innocents are hurt or killed as part of her plan or even the implications of endings unique to her route. Most of all, it means ignoring the growing pile of evidence that Edelgard is a liar who will say whatever she needs to in order to look like the hero.

In other words it takes blind faith in Edelgard, or wilful ignorance, in order to complete Flower. But then compare this to Rhea, Dimitri and Claude. How Rhea's belief in her mother caused her to ignore Fodlan's moral decline as she believed that when she revived her mother, Sothis would fix everything. Rhea, if she lives, gets her best ending when she realizes this failing and instead returns to , duties as Archbishop and the results are said to be miraculous. Dimitri's beliefs led him to killing those who hurt others, believing his duties were to the dead even if it meant he became a monster himself. He's saved by realizing his beliefs were wrong and his real duty is towards helping the living. Meanwhile, Claude's own ideals are hypocritical on his part until he puts aside his prejudice against the Church. Kinda hard to champion accepting the beliefs of others when you decide to destroy a religion you blame for Fodlan's problems, especially since Claude realizes just how wrong he was about the Church in his initial assessment.

You could make an argument that Rhea, Dimitri and Claude all start off as some form of zealot and their best development is to grow beyond that. Byleth's story is about seeing what Edelgard does and not turning a blind eye, seeing Edelgard's actions for what they really are, and doing the right thing regardless of how it makes them feel.

The various types of symbolism then become an extension of this. They symbols all point towards the same truth, regardless of their background. If anything, they're meant to show how universal this lesson is. That if you hold your beliefs to such a level that you're willing to reject reality (or in the case of some players, the game's script and authorial intent) for them, then those beliefs are a problem. The fact that Edelgard, when pressed, blames the people if her ideals don't make their lives better is meant to show how disconnected from reality she actually is, and with her demonic Hegemon form being presented as the personification of those ideals while Dimitri ends up with the messianic title of savior king, it doesn't take a genius to figure out whose side the game is actually on.

If Edelgard was meant to be a good guy, her fans wouldn't be telling others not to listen to the game's creators. Nor would they be telling people to read a fanfic to understand the characters, or trying to dismiss everything else the game says. Flower is a villain route, and that's okay. It is what it is, even with the translation issues messing it up somewhat. It doesn't want you to ignore the truth about Edelgard, it want you to see the truth.

[miqojak]

What is your favorite thing about your OC?

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS I've answered other versions of this here and here - and I always feel weird trying to answer questions like this... I've never been good at answering what I like most about myself, either. People aren't just one thing - much like asking what part of a painting is your favorite...how do you pick? If you pick that single brushstroke, all the rest is discounted...and it takes every color, and every brush-stroke, to make the whole of the image at hand. So picking just one part of a whole person feels equally wrong to me? There's no one favorite thing about her - much like when you love a real person and are asked what quality is your favorite...again, how do you pick? The whole person is what counts. I like that she's brutally honest - I am too. I like her determination to overcome her hurts - that similarly resonates with me; and she inspires me even, at times, to try harder and push a little more.

I love that, under all the pain, she's just an immigrant in a place that doesn't seem to want her, and she's absolutely unwilling to accept that. I love that, hovering on the cusp of becoming someone truly unforgiveable... she's still able to take a step back, and think about the confusion of emotions she can't understand, but is trying to. I appreciate that she's abnormal, and pretty okay with being abnormal (except when she's not, and feels painfully excluded from any and all aspects of society - but thinks that's what's best for others, so she doesn't hurt them). I love that she's deeply flawed, but powerfully confident. I love that she's never once had to consider things like 'gender', and can wear whatever she wants, because she's just that confident. I love that powerfully confident people can still feel doubt. I love that Jak surprises me - I never expected that she and Ketsuchi would end up being good for one another. I thought they'd end up being toxic, and pushing each other to worse and worse extremes... but when it came down to it, I love that Jak saw someone so like her - so hurt in so many similar ways - and chose kindness, in her own fashion. She chose to weather his own vitriolic episodes, because she knew exactly where that kind of venom comes from...and even if she only cared in the beginning because his pain looked like hers? She cared. That propped the door open, and she was able to change. She was there for someone else, even when she wasn't very good at it - and like reciprocates like. That started in 2019, and here in 2023, she's so much more...socialized? More understanding of things than she used to be because she understands more things than she used to, and much of it wouldn't have come about without the healthy dynamic she has with someone that I fully never saw coming. After all the unhealthily weird things I've endured from people who want shipping/ERP, Jak was effectively sex-repulsed and non-shippable! (And at this point, Kets helped her overcome/become more comfortable around many triggering situations! Who saw the once-scariest-man-she-knew also being the most patient and dutiful with her hang-ups? ...once they stopped trying to bite each other's heads off.)

I think I love her adaptability, and the confidence that underlies it. I guess that's what is at the core of Jak, and has affected everything about her - she's willing to become who she must, when the situation demands it... but not for the sake of anyone but herself, these days. She survives, no matter what it asks of her, and comes out the other side asking how she can be better - how she can be strong enough to not have to compromise - next time life asks it of her. And at the end of it all? She's absolutely willing to admit when she's wrong - and when the real, modern world is so full of villains who lie through their teeth, even when facts are presented? It feels kinda good to have a character who, despite all the darkness around herself... is honest, and owns up to mistakes, and works to never make those same mistakes again, rather than just insisting you never saw the mistake, or being too upset by it. Everyone makes mistakes, so there's no point in wasting too much time on the spilled milk - but in her mind? If you keep spilling the milk, then it's a problem. You take action to make yourself better, and to not make that mistake again, or else. And there's something about this steely resolve of hers that she holds even herself to, that just...hits right. She doesn't ask anything of others that she's not willing to do/hasn't already done herself, in that regard.

[the-final-sif]

I was thinking about different way the league could try to kidnap Katsuki and thought what if they just adopted him. Like got the paperwork filled it out (using an alias) and just battled the Bakugous for custody. Yeah, they're villians, but the paperwork checks out, and they can provide all necessary essentials, and maybe the Bakugous aren't the best parents.

This idea is extremely funny to me, and so I tried to think of a way it could work out that even kinda makes sense. After talking about it in the discord, I think I figured it out. (Set after USJ & sports festival, but pre-any kidnapping stuff)

We’re going to assume Bad Parents!Bakugous, with the situation being bad enough Katsuki is removed from their custody. The plan was for Aizawa / UA to take custody of him after that.

Only, there’s 1 tiny flaw in that plan. Katsuki’s quirk.

See, Katsuki’s quirk is considered a ‘dangerous’ quirk. 99% of the time this doesn’t matter, but there’s an old law regarding child custody that comes into play with dangerous quirks.

The law basically says that if a child has a ‘dangerous’ quirk, and their removed from their birth family’s custody, other relatives MUST be contacted to see if they are willing + capable of taking custody of the child. Even distant relatives.

Furthermore, if a relative wants the child (and passes a few other criteria), then they are all but guaranteed custody, even if there’s other circumstances that would usually prevent it. If the relative has a similar quirk to the child, that boosts their chances even further / offers extra protections.

The law was created during an earlier period of quirks, when ‘dangerous’ quirks were extremely hard to handle, and usually only family members with similar quirks could do it. It’s not a great law, but nobody’s gotten around to removing it since it doesn’t come into play often.

But of course, Katsuki isn’t so lucky. He has three relatives that have to be contacted and decline custody of him before Aizawa can claim it. He’s never met any of these people, has never had much contact with any extended family, but now he has to wait for them to say no before he can move on with this bullshit.

Two are easy enough, both are great uncles or something similar and live in assisted living facilities. Neither have the interest / capacity for Katsuki.

And then there’s Katsuki’s distant cousin on his dad’s side.

Honestly, it’s such bullshit. The guy went missing ages ago. His whole family was confirmed dead, but apparently the guy himself wasn’t, and since he’s still considered alive, they have to at least try to contact him.

A newspaper ad goes up for “Tenko Shimura”, there’s a 15 day waiting period while the ad runs, and then they should finally be free to move on.

Except, holy shit, turns out the guy isn’t actually dead.

He saw the newspaper ad, and actually calls in out of curiosity.

Katsuki is taken off guard and relieved, because the guy will say no, and then they can finish this, right?

Right?

Only, the guy doesn’t say no.

He doesn’t say yes either, but he asks to be put in contact with Katsuki so he can discuss it.

Katsuki is so done with all of this, but he agrees to talk to the guy hoping to convince him it’s fine for Aizawa / UA to take custody.

Tenko & Katsuki talk on the phone for an hour, and by the end of their first conversation, Tenko isn’t convinced it’s fine and now Katsuki isn’t either.

Because, fuck, the guy actually sounded nice. And nothing he said was wrong either. Tenko was worried about the sports festival (and Katsuki has to admit, hearing an adult express concern for him & tell him what happened to him was bad for the very first time took a weight off his shoulders he hadn’t known he was carrying), he was worried about how UA had handled him so far, and he was worried what would happen if Katsuki didn’t have any outside figures to turn to in the future.

Several long phone calls later, including one between Aizawa & Tenko, and it’s been decided. While Katsuki will be staying at UA and living primarily in the dorms set up for international students (since Tenko lives quite a ways away), custody of him will be going to Tenko.

Aizawa isn’t exactly happy about it, but that law gives Tenko the first claim, and he has to admit that Tenko raises quite a few good points. After having spoken to him at length, Aizawa feels like he has Katsuki’s best interests in mind too.

Paperwork goes through, things are set in motion, and in the meantime, Katsuki keeps calling / texting with Tenko, slowly growing closer to his cousin. Turns out the two have a lot in common.

Tenko also have family issues and was adopted, which is why he appeared to go “missing”. In reality he’s just been living under a different name. His quirk is apparently related to his hands and also considered ‘dangerous’ although he doesn’t like to discuss it, and he and Katsuki are both very blunt people, meaning they get along great.

Finally, everything is said and done, and Katsuki is going to go on a weekend trip up to where Tenko lives to meet him in person for the very first time. He’s given a train station and told he’ll be met there, and he’s honestly kinda excited for it.

Throughout the court case, Aizawa was the only one from UA allowed to have access to all the records / be in contact with Tenko. He couldn’t even discuss things with anyone else.

Now it’s all over though, he’s in the staff room and only half engaged in the current planning session. Mostly focused on his phone / checking in with Katsuki.

Mic teases him about being worried, and Aizawa just mumbles that he’s still kinda unsure of this ‘Shimura’ guy.

All-Might, who is also at this meeting, does a spit take.

It takes several seconds for him to regain himself.

He’s sure he must’ve just misheard though.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I just got confused about something for a moment. What did you say the name of Katsuki's new parent was again?"

 “The guy’s legal name is Tenko Shimura, although he apparently stopped going by that awhile ago, which was why he came up as missing. He responded to a newspaper ad though and was able to verify his identity."

All-Might.exe has stopped working.

It has to be a coincidence. There's no way.

"Tenko... Shimura? His name, uh, well I used to know someone by that name. How old was he again? And why was he chosen?"

Aizawa is a little confused, but still not concerned, he just assumes All-Might happened to know the guy.

"He's 20, which is young to be taking on a kid, but he's properly prepared for. It was the quirk-relation law that set it in stone. Shimura is a distant cousin and has similar quirk to Katsuki, the specifics were a little hazy, but a dangerous hand-related quirk. Why?"

All-Might needs several seconds before he can speak.

“Tenko Shimura is Tomura Shigaraki.”

“... What?”

“Tenko Shimura, that was Tomura Shigaraki’s birth name. That’s- That’s him. There’s nobody else that could be.”

“WHAT?!”

Yeah, so they try to get in contact with Katsuki but it’s too late, Kurogiri already ‘picked him up’ and his phone is not working in the underground area he’s in.

Anyways, so Tomura introduces himself, and Katsuki spends awhile trying to fight him but not really getting anywhere until Tomura is finally able to convince him to let Tomura explain himself.

Katsuki is Upset, but also wants Answers.

Tomura reveals that he never lied, he was Tenko Shimura, and everything he told Katsuki was true. Truths were certainly omitted, but he never lied. And he has no bad intentions towards Katsuki.

He saw the newspaper ad, and having seen what happened at the sports festival, felt compelled to step in. He promises he just wants to be a good guardian.

And Katsuki does not want to believe that. He doesn’t.

Except, at the end of their scheduled time, Tomura just,,,, lets him go. No demands that Katsuki can’t tell anyone what happened, no threats, nothing.

Kurogiri just teleports him back out to some place near UA and bids him goodnight, very pleased to see Tomura taking this seriously & that he now has a grandchild.

Katsuki shows back up at UA, after 12 hours of them searching for him frantically, and he’s just as confused as they are.

Obviously, they try to remove custody from Tomura after that.

Problem: They can’t.

Between the bullshit law from before, and the fact Tomura has never actually been caught / arrested / charged with a crime, they legally cannot remove Katsuki from Tomura’s custody.

He would have to fail as a guardian for Katsuki in order for them to remove him. Until then, he’s got custody.

This is just something they’re going to have to live with.

Katsuki Is So Done.

When he goes into class on Monday, a very excited Kirishima greets him.

"So dude? How did visiting your cousin go? What was he like?"

"You know that guy who attacked us at USJ? The guy with the creepy hands who almost killed Aizawa?" 

“... Uh, yeah?”

“Turns out that’s my cousin.”

"Oh my god! What the hell dude! Are you okay???"

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Welcome to the Katsuki Shimura AU, where Katsuki’s life is weird and Parent-Teacher conferences get fucking awkward.

[aotopmha]

Attack on Titan in 2020

I've sort of dropped doing detailed chapter posts on the series because that type of writing wasn't very fun for me anymore and I have taken a liking to a bullet point kind of approach where I list the elements that stood out for me in the chapter or make a separate post for some specific topic I'd like to talk about in it.

I've started like 10 different posts to attempt to talk about AoT this year and I always end up with incoherent rambling because of all of the elements I'd love to to talk about.

This year's chapters were 125-135 and this year's episodes episodes 1-4 of season 4.

The anime episodes in particular have given me a lot of food for thought, so I'm just saying fuck it.

I think the biggest misstep of the story for me will forever be the fact that it decided to use fairly specific historical imagery.

The Eldians are clearly supposed to have allegorical equivalency with Jewish people, but the Jewish people were never the oppressors. There weren't any Jewish empires. That's conspiracy theory bullshit.

But on the other hand, the series clearly takes great effort to not stereotype any of the groups it's portraying and gives complex reasons for what both sides do. It's one of the few Japanese series that I've seen not stereotype Middle Eastern-coded people (Ramzi and Halil) or black people (Onyakapon). Everyone are people, it says. It even champions diversity:

(Chapter 118)

It is also very much true that a bunch of fascist states use long-term history as an excuse for their actions:

(Chapter 127)

Nation did X 2000 years ago therefore our conquest of them is justified.

This makes discussion about the series' themes like a minefield.

The people who are very critical about its imagery are right, but the people defending the series aren't wrong, either because it condemns all of those nasty ideas of conquest and hurting innocent people.

You can't have a more clear-cut condemnation of genocide:

(Chapter 127)

If you combine all of these details instead of zoning in on them one by one, to me what the story is saying is that *even if* all of that conspiracy bullshit is true, innocent people don't deserve to be slaughtered no matter the reason because they are still people who have their own feelings, thoughts and wishes.

The story clearly gets the baseline, but fumbles the details. I decided to look up some more discussion surrounding this these past few days and I just wish there was more good faith discussion about it. A lot of it feels like a moral superiority contest.

I think it's these kind of flawed stories that actually deserve detailed scruitiny over stories that are rotten to the core because they are *almost there*. Talking about them is a good topic starter in what to do and not to do in a story like this.

Speaking of rotten to the core, I think the absolute highlight of the chapters this year is Eren and some of the chapters this year finally gave me a pretty clear picture of what is going on with him.

Context from 123 certainly helps, though:

(Chapter 131)

This is about Eren's perspective. He can't accept the destruction of Paradis.

It's not that this solution was inevitable looking in from the outside (which is one of the interpretations I see around for Eren's actions), it's that *Eren* can't see any other way out of this except the most extreme because of all of the horrible things he has seen from the outside world. It is very similar to the way suicidal people can only focus on the negative.

You can tell them everything is going to be okay, but those words won't reach them because their mind won't let them and loops them back to those negative thoughts.

Eren can't see the ice cream or silly clowns. But he can see how the other Eldians in the league of Eldians are willing to push Paradis under the bus. He can see how Grisha's sister was killed. He can see how racist and cruel Marley is towards the Eldians in Liberio (and how the people have racist leanings towards other nations, too).

He can only see those bad things. But he also understands how everyone outside of the walls are human just as the people inside of the walls are.

So he is torn to pieces by guilt.

He doesn't want to do this, but he can't see any other solution.

This is why I also think he can't rob his friends of their agency. He is fighting for them to have a good future:

(Chapter 133)

(Chapter 131)

What really stood out to me on a revisit is that Eren considers himself much worse than Reiner.

I've seen criticism on how the story pushes the narrative of both sides being the same and this detail is really important to me because this is the story acknowledging that what Eren is doing is worse and gives all of the following exchanges about this the context of it being a similarity in principle.

Both sides have killed for what they think is right and have to deal with how they have killed people. This is such an important detail in the Uprising arc, too, where Erwin firmly acknowledged that overthrowing the government might not actually be the right choice by him. It was simply what he saw as right. On a narrative level this avoids absolute truths and preference of one character perspective over the other and once again makes it about individual perspectives.

The theme of individual perspectives is so ingrained in this story at this point in my eyes that it's another cornerstone in understanding what is going on with Eren to me.

I think it's great.

I also really appreciate Annie and what was done with her in this chunk of chapters.

(Chapter 127)

There has been this narrative going around that proposes that the story is in Eren's corner too much. But these chapters are nothing but questioning Eren and Annie is one of the main voices in this. It's the Marleyan girls, really and I think this is a very necessary part of making the narrative work. Once again, it separates the narrative and character perspective.

It says that the Paradis side caring is about character perspective, not what the narrative sides with and Annie is even sympathetic to Mikasa in that instance.

She gets it. Unexpectedly, I think Annie might play a bigger role in taking down Eren than expected. Her character arc about deciding to no longer go with the flow because she doesn't want any more tragedy to happen is basically calling for it.

(Chapter 128)

Another element I've seen brought up is the fact that nobody seems to address the Bert-sized elephant in the room, but some of our characters are certainly thinking about him.

This is such a thematically strong element and really interesting because Connie joined the military to make his mom proud and be a good soldier. This is the motivation behind his claim when he says they are going to save the world. But what does becoming a good soldier mean, exactly?

Well, apparently possibly gunning down people you care about.

This moment is so good because it's another moment where the idea of glory in war is taken down a peg.

The moment with Connie declaring they're going to save the world is so often criticised, but it is actually turned on its head in 128. There is no heroics in this. This is actually Connie's big "killing a person" moment because it strips away the final bit of comfort in killing in war, the excuse of killing for good moral reasons.

It is also a wonderful complex evolution of the series' themes. Trost was about fighting monsters. In the Female Titan and Clash of Titan arcs some of those monsters turned out to be human. In the Uprising, Return to Shiganshina and Marley arcs all of those monsters turned out to be human and here in the War of Paradis arc, everyone is human and the only separating system is what everyone views as right.

I really hope the anime will let this chapter breathe a little bit more.

Moving on, I guess it is time to address the rumbling.

I love it as a horror spectacle.

(Chapter 130)

And I really I think it needs to be non-CG when animated. CG is fine in spectacle battles, but not in horror settings because it is too clean.

The rumbling needs to be disgusting and dirty.

Chapter 132 gave me one of the few moments in which I truly cared about Levi. I think him telling Hange to dedicate her heart was a very good moment to cap off their relationship. He sent another SL commander to fulfill their duty.

The speech about hatred in chapter 134 also stood out to me. I think it definitely should be fitted in there somewhere in this, but I also see a bunch of criticism for it.

I want to point out that this is the side of present Marley talking here. It's the military dictatorship.

It's the Nazis. I think the Nazis should feel regret for exploiting innocent people and admit they're wrong.

I also like how the horrors here are undoing the brainwashing and showing the truth to the citizens.

I guess you could read it as heavy-handed, but it is also something that needs to be addressed and in principle, it's not wrong.

I'm also going to put a mention of Historia here. I've talked about how this is my biggest and most glaring problem with the series because of how thematically unfitting it feels, but I've also talked about it in many posts. I wanted to focus more on other stuff in this post.

So now, we make it back to chapter 135.

I think having stewed on it for a month now, I like the element of mindscrewing our cast with the Titans of the people they love is the strongest element of it. It's making them face their personal traumas and we also get some great character moments and payoffs from it.

Mikasa ended off the year in a very good note in my eyes.

Even this deep in the story, this chapter left me in a situation where I have no idea how things might turn out.

I might have rough ideas, but not anything specific and that's fun.

Well, this is it on my retrospective.

2021 is confirmed to be AoT's final year of publication as volume 34 is set to be the story's final volume.

Those who hate the story can finally be free of it and those who care for it, can look back on it with fondness and sadness and many other emotions and evaluate.

It's been 7 years for me. What a wild ride.

So, I'm asking everyone, what are some of your observations on AoT in 2020?

Is there anything you'd like to add or do you have any observations or counterarguments for anything I've said?

I'd be curious to see what everyone else thought of AoT in 2020!

[sorenskyhigh]

What Pet I Think They'd Have and Why: Karasuno Edition

Daichi Sawamura

Of course he'd have a police dog

He's a cop and if he'd have any pet he'd have a buddy to help him bust criminals and fight crime

But I don't think Daichi would have a "normal" dog breed like a German Shepherd, Malinois, or Akita

I feel like Daichi would have a Rottweiler not bc they are my favorite dog breed

But Rottweilers used to be very prevalent in many police forces around the world until German Shepard and Malinois became more common

Also Rottweilers gained a harsh reputation for being aggressive bc they were trained by drug lords and criminals and were used to in fighting

Rottweilers are very muscular, sturdy, and hard working dogs

If trained right and with proper love and care these dogs are GREAT and I mean GREAT companions

They are stubborn and can be territorial with strangers, but, they are very loving towards familiars and family

They are a kind of one or two people fits them kind of dog

They also need constant stimulus as they were breed to be very hardworking dogs

Rottweilers used to pull sleds full of butchered meat bc they were so strong and the original breed was much bigger than the one we know today

They also herded large livestock through the alps and Roman region and are known to be fearless

They are also one of the oldest dog breeds

These dogs became popular Police dogs during the World Wars

Bc they were being used so much their guardian qualities were more showcased so more and more people wanted one to help keep and eye on their children

Since they are herding dogs they are good around children and can keep them in a yard if they are taught the parameters

Rottweilers despite their size generally don't bark a lot either, they are very sneaky when approaching a possible threat and will ppun e from behind

This is why I think Daichi would have one to be by his side

I feel like Daichi would do a lot of research into a good companion and finding a good breeder to find one after deciding

He'd get one as a puppy and personally see to it's training, working with a pro the whole time

His dog would also be a great family protector when he's home with his spouse and possible children, if he ends up having any

Koushi Sugawara

I feel like Koushi would be that really awesome teacher that has a really sweet and sociable pet that he brings in for the kids a lot

I feel Koushi would want soemthing small and cute so a rabbit of some sort would suit him well

Rabbits can be very loving with a small family most of the time or sometimes only one person

Rabbits are prey animals so some breeds wouldn't do well in a loud room full of young children

So what specific rabbit breed would suit his job?

So I chose the Harlequin Rabbit for Koushi

Harlequin rabbits are very social and loving towards owners and strangers alike

They also are known to be very silly, playful and very intelligent

They come in two colour types: Japanese and Magpie

The picture above is an example of Japanese while a Magpie can be colored in just about any other colour other than black nd orange like lilac, white, chocolate, blue and/or black

I feel like this specific type of rabbit would suit him so well as it would be comfortable around all those kids

Be very social and would be less likely to nip them

And it would be energetic enough to keep up with the kids

Koushi wouldn't just want a pet for his classroom though, he'd want a cuddle buddy for at home

He'd want a companion to sit on his lap while he works on lessons

He'd also want a pet that wasn't too lazy as his life would be pretty busy

The only thing is is that rabbits are high maintenance and need very specific foods, medicines, and an experienced vet to care for them

But rabbits are cuddly little crackheads that Koushi would adore

Energetic enough to keep up with his life, but snuggly and home bodied enough to not exhaust him

Asahi Azumane

Asahi is a fashion designer and thus would spend a lot of time hunched over a sketch book making designs

In other words, he has a very home based and indoor job

So he'd need a pet that isn't energetic and obnoxious like a husky or chihuahua

So I chose the Havanese

Havanese is the national dog of Cuba

This dog may be small but they are incredibly sturdy

These dogs become attached quickly and are extremely loyal to said lone owner

Something else that is good for Asahi is these dogs do not do good alone and are willing to follow their owners to the ends of the Earth

They can be described as velcro dogs bc of how attach to the hip with their owners they are

These dogs can be lively and active but they don't need much exercise as they are smaller

Most of their daily exercise can be met in a house with some light play

Also, these dogs are extremely friendly towards strangers and can be described as good host dogs

Another plus for Asahi about this breed is they aren't particularly vocal, most are rather quiet and reserved almost

The last thing you'd want is for people to look down on you for letting your pet act spoiled by barking and nipping at people's ankles

They also love to perform for others

They like attention and are good in groups

Asahi would have to meet with a lot of new people like models and companies and whatnot so a social dog would be best

Asahi also would spend a lot of time in an office or at home and since these dogs don't need much exercise he would be able to have it sleep on his lap while he works without disturbance

I also feel like Asahi would become a bit of a hermit

Like he would contact people but he wouldn't leave his house unless he absolutely had to or wanted to (which isn't often)

Havanese are home-bodied dogs and love just chillin' out on a warm lap or on a couch cushion beside their owners

Yū Nishinoya

Now I DO NOT think Noya should have a pet until he decides to settle down somewhere

Travel can really exhaust a person so it would harm an animal tenfold

So, if you travel a lot DO NOT GET A PET IT WILL ONLY HARM THEM

But if Yū were to have a pet.............................

Noya would need a pet that can travel well, is small enough to not cost a lot, is very attached to their owners, and can eat just about anything

I thought briefly of other rodents since rodents are generally small and can eat just about any food

But raccoons, possums, and other larger rodents that are more common for pets would be too hard to get on planes and boats since you need certification to own them

Rats on the other hand don't need such certifications in most countries and fill all the other requirements

The rat he would have isn't a Dumbo rat like in the picture above, he'd have like a wild rat that he befriended and decided to take with him so it'd most like be brown

Noya would 100% fight anyone who says they hate rats

He hypes up his pet rat to no end

He calls Asahi whenever he can and tells him about all the cool stuff his rat does and sends pictures of his rat being held up to a gorgeous background of famous landmarks in other countries

Nlya always has his rat around the back of his neck and wears a hoodie, scarf, or something like that to hide him so he can join Noya in places that don't allow pets

I also chose a rat bc they are incredibly loyal and I feel like if Noya were to be really tired on a plane and pass out, he would need a pet that he wouldn't have to worry about running away

Of course he has trained his rat to do amazing tricks, you already know

Also, as I previously mentioned, rats can eat just about anything, so his constant travel wouldn't hurt his companion diet

Rats are also quiet generally and aren't overly energetic so he wouldn't have to be worried about being escorted out for having a rat under his scarf

Chikara Ennoshita

Shibas are very independent dog, let's just start with that bc Chikara would need a pet that doesn't need constant attention

With him being a personal trainer he needs a pet that can self entertain

Something else about Shibas is they can often housebreak themselves bc of how fussy and finicky they are

You can also find them cleaning themselves much like a cat

Chikara would be busy for a good bit of his time so he doesn't really have time to properly spend time to housebreak a pet

But Shibas were originally bred to hunt and flush out game like birds and rabbits and other such small animals

A fact about Shibas is they almost went extinct during WWII bc of food shortages a distemper

Distemper is a disease only animals can be affected by that attacks many different systems in their bodies

Also, Shibas are the number one most common companion dog in Japan

Something else about Shibas is that they are fairly healthy, some of the more major problems they have are glaucoma, cataracts, hip dysplasia, entropion, and luxating patella

A lot of eye conditions but are easily avoided if you bring them in for very periodic eye checks and hip examinations

So these are easy to avoid as long you keep an eye on them

Over all I think that if Chikara were to have a pet it would need to be fairly self-sufficient but also something could have a very chill and laid back relationship with

Something that doesn't need to be on his lap all the time but something he can love and nurture

Kiyoko Shimizu & Ryūnoske Tanaka

Now I know I know

Ryu would be a dog person

He'd want a big manly pet not a cat blah blah blah

Kiyoko would definitely be a cat person

She wouldn't want a purebred and would probably find a box of some kittens with Ryu on the side of the sidewalk

Now look me in the eye and lie to me by saying that Ryu would now start crying immediately upon seeing like four lonely little kittens in a box that need a home

Needless to say, they take them home and nurture them endlessly

But Tanaka would be the kind of guy that harness trains his cats so they can go out on walks

Kiyoko would research how to harness train them, what food would be the best, and anything else they need to take care of these four cats

Imagine seeing these two, a big muscular dude and this goddess walking four cats on harnesses down the street

I literally cannot stop thinking about Ryu and Kiyoko cuddling on the couch with all four adult and rather large cats draping themselves across the two of them

I feel like the reason Ryu would want them harness trained is bc he wouldn't be able to spend much time with them

His job as a personal trainer would keep him busy

So on his morning jogs to stay fit he'd want to take not only Kiyoko but the cats as well

I plan on making more parts to this, I hope you enjoy it 😉

@popcorntime-doodles @multifandombrainrot @kneecapstealingalien @akabxne @jiheonity @weareallhumans123 @smallmangi @canadian-crow @just-jellyfish @immiamarais @i-need-coffee-now-pls @foreveryoung050 @kuroos-world @luminasapphire @silverfire6 @shadowsbutdead @ghostexhibit @simpfornishinoya @goshikisimp @anothershadeofpink @mestayanon @japoga @all-around-fandoms31 @thatfunnysprout @myyeetfelloff @itsallgonnabokayihope @g00s3 @boreateo @mirrorballmyfave @backalley-astrologer @vaniatslover @lil-mellow-bunbun @strawberrymakki @theforbiddenrealm-blog @beelziee @mehreenlol

[mitsuaziel]

Rain (Barbatos x Reader)

Female! Reader

Slight angst but with a happy ending

In the human realm there you stood, under the heavy rain that wets your figure, soaking your entire being with its polluted water but you couldn't care less about how you'll get sick afterwards. No. You stare into nothingness, the heavy rain greatly limiting your field of vision to maybe one to two meters and even so, objects are extremely blurry.

The reason why you're under the rain is because you're heartbroken. It's stupid, yes, you know but he was your fiance of three years so it's heart shattering and as if your life line is plugged out when you caught him in action with another woman, balls deep into her as her moans fill the room, clearly having a good time. The reason for his cheating is because you didn't want to have sexual intercourse with him but being the religious person you are, you stated that you didn't want to have sex until after marriage but it seems that he couldn't wrap his mind around the idea.

'He only wants you for your body', your best friend said, attempting to comfort you but it didn't do much as your mind wanders to that specific moment in your life.

'He's the one missing out! It just means that he wasn't your soulmate. God has other plans for you', then why did He has to make it so painful to you?

'Fuck that guy! I hope he gets condemned to Hell', you wish too but you try to get yourself out of that mind set since it's quite the sin to wish someone that.

All these allegations are true, yet here you are, under the rain thinking negatively about yourself. Weren't you pretty enough? Wasn't your company enough for him? Satisfying enough for him? You let out a shaky breath and close your eyes, the rain getting heavier if that's possible. You really want to disappear off the surface of the Earth but you didn't. Again, it's a great sin if you did it.

So, you resorted to just being sad and crying out your sadness all alone. It was... Comforting, to say the very least and with the rain, it's easy to cover up your tears and voice.

"ARGH!" You screamed out loud. You could barely make out your own voice. Perfect.

So you screamed again and again and again until you ran out of energy. If you can't hurt or kill yourself, you might as well tire yourself and just go to sleep. But even so, you figured that you might have nightmares regarding what happened to you just yesterday so you might as well completely drain your energy until you can't move.

With one last scream of frustration and anger, you drop to your knees and let tears flow down your face. God, you just wanted to kill yourself but you can't. Sometimes you wish you weren't that religious but it's these times that you're also glad.

How long have you been under the rain? Half an hour? An hour? More than that? You don't know nor do you care at this point. You certainly couldn't care less about your health as well. You just want to hide under the rain so when you thought the rain stopped, you were confused. It's still raining yet why aren't you under it? Then, you look up.

An umbrella.

"Wha?" You breathe out under your breath as you look at the person holding the umbrella.

Due to the darkness, you can't really see his features but you can tell that he's wearing a suit and has gloves on. His expression though empty as ever, his eyebrows are furrowed as if to mimic confusion. He holds out a hand for you to grab and for a moment, flashbacks of your ex-boyfriend doing the same fills your vision and you shake your head.

The man assumes that you didn't want help and retracts his hand. You stand up but wobbled a bit due to you kneeling for so long, causing you to accidentally grab the man's arm. He was as still as a statue, seemingly unbothered by the fact that you just threw yourself towards him. You mutter an apology even though he won't hear it and didn't bother to squeeze water out your hair or clothes.

"Are you okay, miss?" He asks.

You nod and look away, slightly embarrassed of your appearance at the moment. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be going now."

"Wait."

You turn to him. "Do you need something, sir?"

Lightning strikes, lighting up the darkness and you only manage to see his features clearly for a few seconds. Beautiful emerald eyes, green hair gradienting to a teal down his bangs on the left side of his face and no expression at all yet it seems to compliment his handsome features. For a moment, you forgot to breathe. How can a man this beautiful exist?

"You just seem sad and I know that I'm just a stranger, a nobody to you but I do have some time to spare before I go back to serve my master." He states.

You were suspicious. The world is a dangerous place and if a handsome man like Ted Bundy can turn out to be a manipulative murderer, then surely, the man in front of you can do the same.

When no answer is heard from you, he sighs and puts a hand over his heart before bowing down to you, much to your surprise. "I am Barbatos, the butler to my master, Lord Diavolo."

"I... I see." You weren't expecting a butler to be by your side.

"You now know my name, my occupation and my master. Surely, this is enough information for you." The butler, you now know as Barbatos, said.

"Oh, uh, yeah." You awkwardly fidget around. He's just too formal with you that makes it uncomfortable for you.

"So, may I know what is the cause of your sadness? Why are you just kneeling under the heavy rain? Are you not scared of what might happen to you if you were to stay too long out here?" He shoots you question after question.

You wanted to tell him but you're scared of the thought of him ridiculing you. Your fiance's friends did, is he any different?

Barbatos sighs once again and mumbles something before saying, "I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. I do apologize if I do happen to make you feel that way. All I want to do is lend an ear. It is not too wrong of me to do so, is it now?"

You look at the more interesting ground. "Why do you even want to listen to my problems anyway? A butler like you shouldn't help me. You must have other jobs to do and even if I tell you, it's not like you're gonna use that information."

"Maybe, maybe not. But I just want to help."

Damn, he's persistent, you thought. It's not like you're ungrateful, it's more like preventing other people from meddling into your own problems that you can handle by yourself. You didn't need or want someone else's help. You can figure everything out yourself.

And yet...

"Kill me."

The butler was surprised. "Excuse me, but could you repeat what you just said?"

"Ah..." You shake your head. What were you thinking? "I'm sorry. I'll leave."

Just as you turn away, a hand grabs your arm. "Wait."

You wait for him to talk.

"I know I have no place to say this, and it's ironic that I'm the one who's saying this, but don't do it. Life may be hard for you but surely, there must be people who love you. I don't know what happened and really, I have no say in this, if you're thinking about suicide, shouldn't you do something you love? Be with the people you love instead of suffering all alone and eventually hurting other people?"

You look back at him with tears welling up in your eyes. "This is a stupid reason and all, but I just... Can't. The person I love betrayed me. He... He promised."

Barbatos lets go of your hand. "Then, that just means he's a liar, a toxic person in your life. Is it not a relief that you found out instead of being blinded by his lies?"

You wanted to talk back but you bite back your tongue. It is true. Better now then never. You think for a while before forcing a smile on your face. "I suppose so. Thanks for... Talking, I guess. I really appreciate it."

A small smile curl his lips, enhancing his already handsome face. "You're welcome."

*****

Barbatos finally went back to Lord Diavolo's castle after buying all the necessary items from the human realm.

"Barbatos! There you are! Where have you been? It took longer than usual. Did it run out of stock or something?" Lord Diavolo asks as he goes through his endless pile of paperwork.

The butler bows down to his master as a form of apology. "I am sorry, My Lord. No, it's not because of that."

"Then, what took you so long?"

Memories of the rainy scene plays in his head but he answered differently despite knowing that Lord Diavolo can tell between a truth and a lie. "There was a fuss over a mistake I did, My Lord. Wouldn't this new generation call that a 'Karen'?"

Though he knows, Lord Diavolo was more interested in the name the humans gave for someone with such an attitude. "A Karen, huh? Call Levi here! I need to know what that means!"

The day continues on like normal but Barbatos kept on wondering why the devils did he help such a helpless human who's willing to kill themself just because of a broken heart? He doesn't understand his own actions and frankly, he doesn't wish to know why either. He's a demon, a duke, an earl, he shouldn't care so why did he help that one human?

Ahh, of course.

"Welcome to Devildom!"

"Barbatos?"

He bows down to the new exchange student and smiles at you. "Welcome, MC."

"You were a fucking demon?!" You were surprised rather than scared.

"Were?" Lucifer asks but is ignored when both you and Barbatos wouldn't answer him.

How have the Fates destined the both of you to meet again.