#strong like lays

[noctilin]

I'm amused people dug up this post yesterday when i have been also shuffling things around in the background--

I've been planning of setting up a small preorder run for charms (limited as to not overwhelm myself) and these are one of the options i've been leaning into. ive sold them before locally and here's a sample of it. they're double sided with the bloody side at the back.

other stuff I'm digging for this are old persona charms/stands I'm still fond of (probably one of the akiham and ryuji ones) but I'm open to suggestions especially people have been requesting for prints for years. I'm not sure if I'll do prints but hearing out which ones you guys specifically want (prints or otherwise) will help me weigh what options I'll end up with!

feel free to message me or reply to this post and I'll consider it! thanks!!

[astraystayyh]

this feels like ive been shot in the arm the fact that hyunjin wanted to cover the moonlight which usually has soft, comforting connotations, like even the gentle light was too much for him at the time and he wanted someone warm to be there with him please hold me

[sergle]

I really really REALLY enjoy when Hugo gets to meet people/kids and gets petted. It's fun for me to just stand back and watch, especially since he'll happily let kids get all up in his face.

[dramaism]

So about yesterday. Do you remember everything? I wish I didn't.

Bonus: Chi Yeol’ reaction

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

i'm desperate to know how many notebooks you have filled with these drawings. i must know, please, i'm on my hands and knees

Most of my comics are drawn on standard letter paper (8.5"x11"), and to date I have filled 23 pages! I usually manage to fit roughly 6-8 comics per page.

Mspaint recreation of the first page!

[trashlie]

In Which I Cry Some More About Tragic Siblings

Heads up that this post WILL contain spoilers up through FP 248 so do NOT read this if you don't want to be spoiled!!!!! But in light of 248, I have some strong convictions about Nol and Kousuke's future (like, way future lol) relationship and where we might see them head.

We've been talking a lot on the ILY discord server about family - especially in light of the confirmation that the long-fabled theory that Rand isn't Kousuke's father is coming to light, in terms of what does this mean for their relationship and how do we define family. There feels like, amongst all the other running themes lol, to be a running theme about family and how it isn't necessarily defined by blood.

We see this in how it's clear that Rand seems to have had suspicions about Kousuke's parentage for a while and that it feels like he's only acting on them now in need of a bargaining chip, but that he's always treated Kousuke as his son regardless of whether or not he fathered Kousuke. We've seen how despite believing that Kousuke and Nol share blood they could not force a brotherly bond to form between them, even though Rand had so hoped one would. And though it's not a territory we've had a chance to explore yet, I think we'll get to explore it with Shinae and her own estranged sister, and may see that blood cannot define family, especially when you have been estranged and are virtually strangers.

The conversation leading to this thought was essentially that while Shinae and Shinhye may be (potentially half) sisters, quimchee has given some vague hints that they may not be able to forge a relationship in the future, whether it's because Shinhye is dishonest or is involved with shady dealings or other circumstances, it feels like there may be a narrative that despite sharing blood, you can't force family. Shinhye is not a person that Shinae grew up with and though a part of her longed for her family to be reunited and whole once more, they grew up apart and into separate people, and who Shinhye has grown into may be incompatible with her, may not be someone who can mesh with her.

This feels like it parallels - and especially as a foil - heavily with Nol and Kousuke who everyone has believed are related and have been forced to act as siblings but absolutely cannot, due to the paranoia and fear that is so deeply ingrained in Kousuke. And it feels even more inverted - Shinae and Shinhye who share blood but grew up apart, compared to Nol and Kousuke who share no blood and were pushed to be a family. It feels like there's a theme here about how family is what you make of it - that family can certainly be the people to whom you're related by blood, but sometimes they are found family. Sometimes they are the people you call your family, regardless of your shared blood.

Rand may not have fathered Kousuke, and we don't know for how long he's had his suspicions about his parentage, but we do know that he has always treated him as his son. I know that people will jump on the weird take about how "That's why Rand was always so distant from Kousuke" as if not being the blood relative to Kousuke could ever justify being an absent father - as if Yui wasn't busy orchestrating Rand's absence. Not that I say the blame is solely on Yui, but we also know that Rand has shown the inclination to wanting to play his role as Kousuke's parent and we've seen plenty enough to know that Yui has meddled.

The point is: Rand loves Kousuke, and his distance in Kousuke's life has never been that he doesn't feel that Kousuke is his and therefore he can't love him. Plenty of people are step-parents to children they love as their own, because that's what family is. Plenty of people adopt children they love as much as if they'd birthed them themselves. This narrative of "he can't connect with someone he didn't father" is gross and disgusting and more over, the narrative has shown that was never the case.

And with this thinking, even though we are at a point where Nol is casting people from his life and appears to be heading into his revenge arc, my conviction feels stronger than ever that we will see some kind of reconciliation between Nol and Kousuke, because the theme of "family is what you make of it" just feels so strong, and the potential foil to Shinae and her own sister. That's not to say that Nol would ever entirely forgive Kousuke and they would suddenly be the partners in crime they could have been as much as I feel like part of Nol's narrative is that he is going to find himself in Kousuke's shoes. He already is well on his way, with his interaction with Alyssa, thinking of her hickeys as the result of cheating. Years from now he, too, will have his Kousuke moment of horror when he finds out what was happening to Alyssa, how she got those marks, what she meant when she told him it was "just business" and he will realize how he cast her away when she came to him in her desperate time of need, as Kousuke did to him before. Something else I'd like to talk about when I'm in the headspace to write about it is how Nol's revenge arc will very likely parallel what may be Yui's origins (stream episode 7 of ILY Tea with Trashellie if you don't want to wait for me to write it lmao) which may bring him to a point of understanding how Kousuke ended up where he did - how fear and anger drive and consume you.

What this is getting at really is just to say: I think we might see a future where Nol will be able to face Kousuke and say that he understands. It doesn't undo their past, it doesn't make up for what was lost, or what was done. But I think there is something so important in Nol being able to get that distance and understand, to see how Kousuke, too, was a victim, how his innocent needs were preyed upon and how his hunger for his father's love turned starvation coupled with the deep-seated paranoia and fear lead him to the desperate lengths it did. I think there's going to come a time where Nol will be pulled back from crossing a line and understand.

We already see that Kousuke shows so much shame and, I think remorse, for the things he has done. So much guilt. He knows there was no justification - what he thought justified his actions was all lies, was all manipulation. The mentality that they are different, the paranoia his mother cultivated in him that he used to distance himself from others, that isolated him from others because who could he trust but her - and she, it turned out, was the worst of them all. And while Nol is not ready to hear Kousuke's regrets or apologies, because it's too little too late right now, I think in the future, when he's been consumed, or maybe when he's healed, when he's had enough distance, when he's been able to step back far enough to see that in the end, they both were victims, they were both children who had SO MUCH stolen from them, that even if they couldn't then, maybe now they can start over.

I don't think it's going to be a fairytale ending. I don't think they can be the brothers I want them to be. Kousuke's wounds cut too deep and Nol is too raw from them but I think that's why I see it as starting over. They are different people, have had so much stolen from each other, have lost so much (and will continue to).

But I believe more than ever that they will reconcile. The bridge imagery has always been there and has made me feel this so strongly, but I feel like the family themes make me feel it even more strongly - this sense that they may not share blood after all, but that isn't what makes you family. Sometimes family is a choice. It's choosing to be there for each other. It's choosing to care. It's choosing to love. It doesn't depend on blood - it just depends on depending, doesn't it?

[bylertruther]

not to start psychoanalyzing or anything, but the reason why mike cares so much about el needing him instead of el loving him is because he already knows that love isn't enough. his family loves him, but they don't need him and that's why he's invisible to them (in his pov as the black sheep). he equates being needed to receiving attention, being visible, and thus having value in the eyes of someone else and purpose that he otherwise doesn't have.

[halogalopaghost]

[shhh-secret-time]

No, see, because, like, you fucked up. Now you have to write that. I need that. I need the Star Park AU.

Below I will present my case:

1) That name is so freaking cute and I love it

2) Your tags made me fall in love with it

3) I know you have more ideas in that beautiful brain of yours

4) I really want it.

Please see points 1 - 4 if you have any questions.

Aafjdjakak Dude?! I'm cackling!

Fuck it we ball. Please look forward to it I guess.

I'll throw more in the tags!

[novelconcepts]

not fic related but you and your wife seem so happy! any advice for a couple of newly married queer ladies?

Hey, I love any excuse to talk about being gay and happy! Congrats on being newly married! I dunno, my advice is always really straightforward. Like. Keep prioritizing communication, keep talking to each other about your day, your headspace, the stuff you love, the stuff that freaks you out. Keep that line open no matter how long you're together, because I really do think marriages fall apart when you start just assuming you can read one another's minds. My wife and I are always really careful to be honest with one another; for example, in the event that one of us is having a bad day and the other person's jokes aren't landing, 'cuz we're just sensitive that day, we talk about it. it soothes hurt feelings before they can really take root.

And find ways of making your own fun. Try new foods together, travel if you're into that, remind yourself that intimacy (if that's your bag) is an excuse to just play with one another and learn about the other person. Cherish the comfort of knowing your person is there for you no matter what, make sure you're on equal footing together, make sure you're allowing each other the space to change and grow and learn. And just take as much joy as you can out of being in love. It's not an easy thing, living in the world right now, but love makes it a damn sight more bearable. Queer love is awesome, queer joy is awesome. I wish you all the best, friend.

[lovedazai]

if bsd doesnt go right today u will never hear from me again

[krikidilly]

Did little Ingo and little Emmet ever eat kids cuisines and did Hi-Ci fruit punch while they watched shitty anime on the weekends, maybe inviting little Elesa to join them

OF COURSE THEY DID.. I think they really enjoyed the ones with the brownie and chicken nuggets but they always had to rock paper scissor for the last one if the nuggets were an uneven number. Whenever Elesa is busy that weekend they both tell her every detail she missed the next school day so she doesn't get left out.

[salemoleander]

xB asking about the TCG refreshments: "Does my Scarland VIP pass cover this?"

Scar, completely neutral: "We are outside the park."

[good-wine-and-cheese]

20thcb continues to go hard. I really do love this mindset that Urasawa puts into all of his works, the notion that someone being "pure evil" is unrealistic even when the person is proclaiming it for themselves. No one is evil, they can just choose to do evil things. And consistently choosing to do evil things will fuck up your life.

Also the concept that being good is easier than being evil...even in 20th, where the "evil" guys are winning, it's just objectively better for your humanity to choose good. The evil guys are falling apart at the seams and miserable. Being a good guy IS easier, when you think about life in a human context instead of a power struggle. Urasawa's messaging about the inherent humanity of all people is always so powerful

[childofaura]

All right, it seems like I’ve got a lot of understanding and rational people who responded to my earlier inquiry about making a Claire criticism post. So I’m gonna go ahead and do it, since this is something that’s sat in my mind every time a new installment of the ToA series came out.

SO BIG DISCLAIMER BECAUSE I WANT EVERYONE TO READ THIS BEFORE ANYONE GETS MAD AT ME:

THIS IS ALL MY SUBJECTIVE OPINION. I MIGHT BE PHRASING THIS POST LIKE IT’S AN ABSOLUTE, BUT IT’S NOT, IT’S ALL ISSUES I PERSONALLY FEEL WITH CLAIRE’S CHARACTER. SO IF YOU LIKE CLAIRE, THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK OR ME TELLING YOU YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING/CAN’T LIKE CLAIRE.

Now that I think I’ve got that out of the way, I wanna jump into the actual post of why I’ve never really liked Claire’s character.

If we’re being really really REALLY honest... I think the issue is mostly based off of “The writers didn’t know how to write Claire”. I’ve felt like every character in Trollhunters (specifically Trollhunters, we don’t talk about 3Below and while Wizards was pretty positive overall, that was also a lot of hit or miss, and that series plays even more into why I don’t like Claire) was executed pretty well to fulfill their roles as characters or to be compelling and pretty easy to grasp their personalities.

Except Claire.

Personality issues:

Her character’s inconsistent and flip-flops. To start off, her intro in the series is just “pretty girl that Jim likes”. We get the promising sense that she has some non-conforming interests at first, as she’s advertising try-outs for the play, but that’s just lifted from the Trollhunters book and we never see any interest in theater arts from Claire ever again after that. Her hair (and I’m sorry but I hate her hair with all the stupid hairclips in the front, it’s so distracting and it looks dumb) with the streak in it and the skull shirt she wears makes you assume she’s somewhat rebellious, maybe kind of punk, but she’s a straight-A trouble-free student who’s apparently popular with everyone, and helps her mom out with campaigning for her political career. There’s really nothing to her personality that shows itself consistently, besides the Papa Skull interest.

And then there’s how badly her character and personality was executed at first; When Steve’s about to beat up Jim, she tries to step in but gets shoved back. Great! She has a sense of right and wrong and she’ll stand up for others. But then later on, she scolds Jim for the crime of... standing up for himself? Which sends a really bad message that she’d have rather had Jim publicly humiliate himself and/or possibly get beat up. Then later she’s willing to go to a Papa Skull concert with the same guy who shoved her. That’s incredibly weak character right there.

She starts to show some more positive character when after getting mad at Jim for trashing the house, she puts two and two together and realizes something’s off, but then she just... sneaks into his house like a weirdo, even though nothing about her character suggests that she’d do something like that and she has no real reason besides “Jim wasn’t straightforward about the party”; it’s not something a normal person would do or what SHE would do given her current character development. And then this one’s a smaller gripe, but I hated her scoff in Wizards when the tournament was going on and the guards didn’t let her in, she goes “Ugh, boys’ club!”. UH HELLO, YOU IDIOT. THERE WERE FEMALE GUARDS CLEARLY EMPLOYED IN ARTHUR’S SERVICE. HELL, THE GUARD THAT BULLAR ATE WAS A FEMALE GUARD. GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU’RE BEING SLIGHTED BECAUSE YOU’RE A GIRL. YOU WERE CONSIDERED A CIVILIAN TRYING TO ENTER A TOURNAMENT FOR TRAINED KNIGHTS.

Now past all the character inconsistencies in those first thirteen-ish episodes, the second issue I have with Claire’s character is that she teeters pretty dangerously into Mary Sue territory. Everyone (I was almost gonna say “who isn’t a major villain” but EVEN MORGANA ends up liking her. So MOSTLY everyone) who isn’t a main antagonist ends up liking Claire in some way. Steve the bully? Tries to date her. Mary, whom she said she wasn’t really close friends with? Is friends with her and even has her number. Freaking VENDEL, the grumpiest character in the show, only has to hear her talk in Troll and he immediately likes her without her having to earn his trust (which also she just... never uses Troll again. Sure is convenient that she learned to speak fluent Troll just for one scene and one character to like her). Morgana takes a liking to her. Compare that to how hard Jim had to work to gain the trust of others: His bond with Draal, learning to prove himself to Vendel, engaging with Nomura in prison and befriending her. She too easily assimilates with other characters; I’d have less issues if she had to work like Jim did, but the only time she does is with NotEnrique.

Skills and abilities don’t feel earned or consistent:

And then the whole thing with her powers and her physical abilities. It was never explained in the show how she actually obtained innate magic powers not connected to the Shadow Staff itself (And no, if you have to explain it on Twitter as a writer, that’s not good writing, that’s forcing your audience to play detective). She’s just all of a sudden doing awfully-convenient high-level magic in the first two episodes (or maybe three, whenever she created that shadow-cover for Jim and the others to escape.) without explaining HOW she had got those powers, and then she performs it perfectly whenever the plot needs it (She’s literally shown to be more powerful than Merlin, how stupid is that?). Remember in the movie where everyone was like “Oh no Claire, don’t use your powers because it could hurt you!” and she does anyways and she faints for like three seconds and then has no other physical repercussions? Or how she’s somehow MORE capable than Jim when it comes to fighting, like how in the Chinese Trollmarket she manages to swipe one of the other troll’s weapons, which has an entirely different weight and size to her shadow staff and probably required extensive training, and she just uses it flawlessly to fight? The only times Claire really fails are when the plot calls for it.

Plot can’t happen without her:

And finally, she hijacks the plot constantly, more than her character should, and has more importance placed on her role in the story than anyone else. Even Blinky. She even took over the plot for Wizards, which was supposed to be Douxie’s story and Douxie’s character-focus. The poor guy took a backseat to his own story because the plot relied on Claire to move forward, literally nothing could be done without her. And I mentioned it before but even though Douxie’s character still managed to get enough development, it was hardly enough because Claire hogged up so much screen-time focusing on HER and HER magic development and HER relationship with Morgana over Douxie and HIS magic development and HIS relationship with Merlin.

And also the fact that it’s Claire who ends up either saving the day or taking priority over the others. Who was the one who defeated Morgana in Trollhunters? Claire. Who brought Jim back to life as a human, despite the fact that even Merlin stated it was impossible for him to make Jim a human again? Claire. Who was it that Jim made sure to establish his relationship with, but not anyone else? CLAIRE. That ending in the movie where he doesn’t seem to care about his relationship with Blinky, Draal, Strickler, etc, but oh we’ve GOTTA have his girlfriend!

Overall, even typing this, I don’t think it’s her fault even though I hate her character; it’s the writers’ fault for doing such a sloppy and inconsistent job because she’s boiled down to just a “girl empowerment”. Because in the book, Claire Fontaine is AWESOME. She’s a Scot descended from a warrior lineage which actually explains why she has weapon capabilities, she’s explained that she’s not really a “popular girl” but she’s super confident in herself and doesn’t really care what others think, and that’s what Jim finds charming about her, and she rips Steve a new one after hearing that he’s just trying to charm her to piss off Jim.

But Claire Nunez is a mess of a poorly executed character. And again, I blame the writers because I think Claire could have been great if they knew what they were doing with her and made her balanced.

[reginrokkr]

whispers I stan for (1) man who isn't thicc but has an unbelievable chest and bakery.