#the basic gist !! I need to design those three too

[sublimerences]

Wammy kids Evangelion au… aka pain and suffering squared

[jiminrings]

hi hannah !! can i request a drabble where jungkook visits florist!y/n and he went “hi i’m here to get a flower for my girlfriend” and the girlfriend is y/n. i’m sorry if it doesn’t make sense 😭 love u <3

full blooms

love u too bestie <3

aka jungkook really should’ve thought this through!!

...... oh no

there are so many people in the shop

not just any shop though :D

sometimes you collectively forget that this is yOUR shop and you’re the literal owner of it and you’re not just working it

and sometimes, you forget just how influential things could be

case in point: kim taehyung !!

kim taehyung as in the hottest musician in the scene rn, who happens to be vante on spotify, AND someone who you just happen to know as kim taehyung!!!

kim taehyung as in the friendly customer who comes into your shop more oftenly to look at your flowers than to buy them

and you just let him look at them without buying anything because there’s no harm in it!! the guy is just straight-up Vibing looking at the flowers

(and he also leaves a handsome tip in your jar even when he doesn’t buy anything!!)

you just knew him to be that pleasant customer,,, not exactly a world-renowned musician you couldn’t exactly piece together

but apparently, you’re now more aware than ever lmao

taehyung sneaked in the name of your flower shop somewhere into the lyrics of the mOST famous song from his newly-released album

flowers from spring day on my mind, corner of the street with the neon sign, heaven on my mind and i spent no dime

goddamn

it just so happens that you letting THEE vante look at flowers as he pleases has become his favorite routine and it just makes him so happy in general

so happy to the point that your shop is specifically mentioned

— so, so happy to the point that your shop had become fully-packed and was making single-file lines that stretched all across four blocks overnight

so sO happy to the point that he had unknowingly become a catalyst for your shop to be almost fined because so many people were clogging sidewalks and a warning to get it together so that there would be better organization

YOUR SHOP WAS LITERALLY FEATURED ON THE NEWS?????

anyways, taehyung slipped in from the staffroom you mentioned to him in passing two days after he dropped his album, and then could you properly freak out about him

he was giggly the whole time when you were spouting out your disbelief for him but tHEN he also apologized for all the (positive & money-making) trouble he’s gotten you into

and he managed to sales-talk you (u swear u are the boss here) into collaborating with him for a limited collection with all the favorite flowers he’s taken note of so he could share it with his fans

he even brought you a notebook with all the illustrations and ideas he’s conceptualized so yeah,,,, there’s that

not only do you serve more than a full house in your flower shop and spend much more hours and energy, you’ve also agreed to add something big into your plate that’s easily getting crowded

what a good thing you have jungkook :D

you could literally not ask for a better boyfriend than jungkook

he’s been so supportive the whole time and he kept sHRIEKING when you casually told him that the frequent sight-seeing customer turned out to be vante himself

“all this time?! all this time and you fORGOT to mention to me that he wears a leather watch and a pearl necklace??? baby, those are basically his trademarks!!”

he supports you in ways you can’t even fathom <3

he was supposed to help you in the shop to help tackle the horde of vante-loving and flowers-from-spring-day enthusiasts, but he got an even better idea

he spent the whole week designing and building an online website for spring day from scratch!! he wanted it to be perfect for you and everything you stand by

also even him, a computer sciences graduate, had to back up the website extra nifty because he already predicts that it would get so much traffic (!!)

he took it upon himself to hire from his friends to be your helpers for the shop because ur severely under-staffed

he has tHREE more-than-willing candidates!!!

jimin’s summer job in college was him being a cashier in goddamn music festivals :D OF COURSE he’s gonna be the greatest cashier you’ll ever have!!! he can whip up change even before the customer hands the bills; he’s that good

he also has a great stern voice of making people stand in organized lines and not cut it so that would come handy

hoseok has a great instinct for color theory!!! he just knows what works and what doesn’t and you need an extra mind to help conceptualize arrangements in the blink of an eye

namjoon is a master of small talk and an all-rounder!! you have a loT of customers who have no gist whatsoever on what they want, and you don’t want to risk giving them an arrangement they loathe!! he knows how to hit it

he was actually so excited when jungkook pitched him a job offer

he could literally go “y/n, the lady in yellow has a dalmatian. i could tell she would tulips in her arrangement along with hydrangeas.”

so that’s that, basically

you and jungkook have been hectic and apart for a whole week because you practically sleep in the shop trying to keep up with everything

he’s actually keeping the website and sneaky hires from you as secrets in the meantime because he wants to surprise you!!! like literally right now

he enters from the staffroom and make sure none of the people waiting by the entrance see him because that would be utter chaos

the shutters are all closed so no one from outside can see what’s inside, but you actually fAIL to realize that your shop would still be closed for another ten minutes

the moment you hear a voice, your mind automatically goes to “hi! welcome to spring day. what blooms would you like?” mode :|

jungkook frowns because you look so haggard under his trained eye even if you still look well-kempt!! you can’t have your shops and yourself appear ratty in the eager instagram stories that taehyung’s fans take

but that’s okay!!! he’ll coax you to come home with him tonight because he’s gonna tell you about his hires this morning

“hi! welcome to spring day. what blooms would you like?”

you briefly look up to send a smile, already fetching your paper on your left hand and twine and scissors on the other

“hi! i’m here to get flowers for my girlfriend.”

“that sounds lovely. what would you-“

wait

hold on a second

that’s jungkook’s voice....??

that’s your bOYFRIEND’S VOICE???

“j-jungkook?”

you mutter and the boy beams in return, registering the blank look on your face to be surprise instead of what you’re thinking

the tears suddenly pool at the corner of your eyes even before you realize

“is this your way of breaking up with me?”

...

.....

“what? nO!”

your shoulders visibly sag in relief but jungkook’s clearly perplexed on how you even came to that

“why would i ever be dumb enough to break up with you?” he immediately consoles you when you bury your face in your hands, hopping over the counter to put you in a massive hug

“i-i haven’t slept, dummy!! and i figured that you hate me because we haven’t seen each other for a week and-“

you say in between sobs and chuckles, giggling when your cheeks are smushed and jungkook keeps peppering you with wet kisses

“ten minutes before opening,” kook sweetly reminds you, kissing you on the lips after an entire week that the sheer euphoria he’s getting now is enough to last another

“mhmmm,” you hum when he presses his warm hand on the small of your back, “tell me about your week in ten minutes.”

“sounds good,” he affirms, scratching your scalp that makes you relax even more until he stops red-faced —

“but like, while multitasking, y’know? kiss me while i tell you about my week.”

[surveillance-0011]

Omega 3 fans rise

Anyhoo, since you mentioned AUs, I feel like I have to ask..

You got any AUs where they’re the main focus?

(Also I was the one that asked for angst HCs and now my heart is in pieces thank you)

RISE RISE RISE and you’re welcome :)

I’ve got a couple!!

Doll Au:technically not centered on them but as of now this au is basically just. Open world with many a story to tell. But uh they (and most salmonids?) are rag dolls. At least the Cellist and Timpanist are, maybe the DJ is a different kind or has better material bc Goldie (which isn’t stated canon yet but he has the eyes and the fringy bits and jewelry/piercings so. Probably the case). But they’d all a little roughed up, well loved, mended over and over. They make their music, live their lives, sew each other back up again when needed…somewhere between quaint and chaotic. when I write or draw more for this au it’ll all be vignettes of events, tales that range from whimsical to creepy to heartbreaking. If a little absurd.

Reincarnation AU: also focused on everyone but these guys are in it so the gist with them is that they’ve been in nearly all of each others past lives as rivals or adversaries and continue to be a part of each others next lives as friends. Also since DJ is a Goldie and those live longer he does cross paths with one or two of the other two’s next lives since he ends up outliving them both by a long time.

Inkfish/Turf War AU/hypotheticals: not rlly an au yet but I’ve posted abt what they’d main and how they’d play turf war before so that counts for something? I’ve considered exploring it further in an au where they’re all inkfish (octolings probably) or maybe just outright make a splatband species swap au to explore how that would change their music and whatnot. Hm… Warabi salmonid…

Human designs/Au: In general I like to draw nonhuman characters as human bc it’s a nice creative exercise in translating certain traits (both physical and personality) to something that still gives the same vibe. Uh in an au where everyone is just a modern day human they’d just be like. A “normal” but very experimental band situated/formed in Hokkaido or Okinawa. There’s less animosity between them and inkfish bc Yknow. Human so no gruesome Grizzco war would take place but they still end up with many a rivalry and people they don’t get along with bc of their unique sound often being turned away in favor of the more mainstream musicians and their personalities are just as easy to clash with as in canon.

Putting the last two under a read more bc it’s getting long. And warning for darker content- death, horror, one offhand mention of suicide ahead…

Death/Ghost AU(s): MORE ANGST sorry about your heart. Hopefully this doesn’t grind it to dust. Technically AUs bc there’s like three different hypotheticals here. All involve the same prompt with one of the three dying during a salmon run shift, some sort of freak accident or being too close to the sr stage and getting hit by one of the longer ranged specials (Killer wail, sting ray). But Yknow basically an unexpected undignified death. And then coming back as a ghost and hijinks and angst and low grade nightmare fuel ensue. So basically the 3 outcomes/sub-aus are:

Cellist dies: Very distraught about the dying-and-becoming-a-ghost thing but more so abt having to leave the other two to mourn and pick up the pieces. He haunts his cello, basically clinging onto it and he eventually becomes able to play again (initially he’s very much invisible and intangible but becomes something more along the lines of a poltergeist). But the thing is the other two basically took it home with them bc he’s got got no other living relatives go claim his belongings and they want something to remember him by and can’t bring themselves to part with it so. Haunting ensues. Typical poltergeist happenings and just. They keep hearing him play. It’s horrible to deal with, just a reminder of their own grief. He eventually gains the strength to truly make himself known, able to be seen and communicate more directly… but he appears as he did in his last moments, still bleeding bright pink ink. Still horrific but he’s able to tell them he means no harm. Not to them, at least. He resolves to stay, too stubborn and concerned for the other two to just pass on. So, perma-bleeding ghost here to stay. Yay. While he doesn’t mean to hurt them they rlly don’t like seeing him like this and he becomes prone to bouts of more typical haunting activity that at times becomes aggressive. At one point they do consider exorcising him.

DJ dies: most… “lighthearted” of the three options! Somehow. They end up haunting the home as well, communicating via technology esp their own computer which they turn on and try to control in an attempt to communicate. Unlike with the Cellist version of this au the other two catch on to exactly what’s going on sooner and the DJ does actually make themselves visible earlier on. But they’re otherwise intangible and weak outside of their controlled tech. So for a haunting it’s relatively low in actual traumatizing events, since they’re more amicable and mischievous than the other two when they die. But while they try to be a nice friendly upbeat ghost they’re still rlly upset abt being dead and not as good at hiding it as they think. So between their attempts at being a ghostly prankster they have these bouts of jealousy and grief that they need to be helped through, not to mention how the other two are technically still mourning. Still this is probably the least scary and upsetting outcome? Also the ink color that they bleed would be the typical orange.

Timpanist dies: on the other hand. Oh boy. This version and the Cellist’s are both more upsetting but while that one is more depressing and tragic I feel like this one would go straight devastating horror. I feel like not passing on normally would fuck with the Timpanist. He would not grasp how he is still around and feels like he’s done something wrong if he’s not in the afterlife yet. Unless someone’s keeping it from him. Or unless this is all there is. Maybe at first he would nobly resolve to protect the other two, any way he can. But he can��t. They don’t sense him. He can’t interact. Totally intangible and invisible. Maybe he’s even bound to the exact spot he died, stuck right on stage. Forever. Forced to watch every performance go on without him. Forced to stay anchored to the scene of his last moments, unable to follow his friends home like he used to. Unable to give or get any comfort. And eventually it just breaks him. There’s nothing he can do… but actually there is: he can possess others. Idk how he figures it out but once he does. Every other day, another Inkfish loses it. Takes off the lifesaver ink tank and runs to the nearest salmonid, or the water, open arms. Those who are held down, stopped right when their eyes go wide and their face pale until the moment passes, report hearing a familiar timpani beat, then just… going blank. It continues for a while. Then he gets the bright idea to possess another salmonid. Maybe one of the other two. Now he can finally reach out again. But he’s… changed. He’s not the same person he was. So desperate, without reason or regard… Having heard and seen what happened, the DJ is well aware of what is going on when the Cellist stops what they’re doing, turns to them with wide eyes, and says hello. Or, when they hear those familiar rhythms, and then that familiar voice, fuzzy but still understandable, right in the back of their mind. But he tries to communicate by possessing one or both of them, basically trying to stick around and act like everything can go back to normal. But it gets to the point where’s he’s just no longer able to connect the same way and basically alternates between wreaking havoc on inkfish and trying to stick with the other two, every bout of possession becoming more terrifying and violent. Eventually it gets to the point where they have to get rid of him before he gets rid of them. Then the two outcomes would be that they exorcise him… or die trying. Oh and the ink is either the new yellow green or lilac.

Monster AU: Cellist as an onyrō or ningyo, Timpanist as either a Yukijin (demons that protect Noboribetsu’s Hell Valley) or Onibi Will-o-Wisp sort of ghost (bc Green Flame) and DJ as a Shachihoko (Tiger-Fish hybrid creature). If I go with the Cellist being an Onyrō I’d mix this with the ghost au concept: he’d be a normal mortal before joining the band but would die sometime between 2 and 3, either in a freak accident like in the normal ghost au or… well… as I mentioned in the last hc post… yeah. But he’d come back as a ghost either way and decide to torment Grizzco’s employees forever… and keep making music, because hey, he’s at least tangible enough to still hold the cello. But in this case he’d be more dangerous and malicious than the base ghost au but not as directed towards the others either!

And then there’s my “Omega 3 as Single Player Bosses” proposal which may eventually become a whole au or DLC pitch. Like Deep Cut they’d be fighting you for reasons only kind of sort of related to the issue at hand but probably a little more direct (bc they want to kick your ass for being an inkfish with possible ties to Grizzco and think you straight up abducted little buddy probablyyyy). I think they also may target you if you’re working with OTH in the DLC bc they remember that those two promoted Grizzco so the rivalry that forms between the two bands is mainly born of that and part of the story would be the two having realized Grizzco sux. Or something. I think Marina already had a hunch and has more respect for salmonids but the network still made them advertise and Pearl would be oblivious bc Inkling Propaganda or just not understanding that Salmonids don’t come back when they die.

[tricktster]

Is TST for the satanic temple

It is merely a happy happy happy coincidence, but don’t take that to mean that they don’t have my full-throated support and admiration.

Since you kids are on tumblr, I’m guessing a lot of you already know that The Satanic Temple (TST) is not, in fact, a group of people who worship Satan. For those of you who might (understandably) have TST confused with an an actual Satan-worshipping entity, rest assured - supporting TST requires no actual Satan worship - or anything worship, it’s a “non-theistic religion.” 

So, you might be wondering, what’s the point of a purported Satanic church that explicitly does not believe in, nor worship, Satan? 

Great rhetorical question! Thank you for the invitation to geek out! In this essay I will explain why The Satanic Temple is an incredibly clever maneuver to protect the individual rights and liberties of people in the United States of America, and why you should all, regardless of religious belief, stan them. I am sorry! This is going to be a long one! I’m going to use a page break!

(Apologies if anything I say here is really basic obvious stuff that you already know. I will probably cover some familiar ground, but I didn’t get taught about any of this in high school beyond a few throwaway paragraphs in a textbook, so I’m writing with an audience of ‘me in high school’ in mind.)

As you know, the founding fathers did some pretty wild shit when they decided on what the United States of America was going to look like, and among the wildest was the decision that America would not have a state religion. I cannot express to you guys how significant this decision was in shaping American culture... soooo I won’t try because it’s beside the point and this is already going to be way too long. All you really need to take away is the following:

The U.S. constitution provides both that religion and government are to be kept separate, and that the free exercise of religion is a fundamental individual right, and those portions of the constitution have pissed a lot of people off over the last 244 years.

So there’s actually three parts of the bill of rights that are in play here. In the First Amendment, we have the Establishment Clause, and the Free Exercise Clause:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion [The Establishment Clause], or prohibiting the free exercise thereof [The Free Exercise Clause]; or abridging the freedom of speech [...]”

These clauses were the only part of the Constitution that touched on religion until the 14th amendment was ratified in 1868. For those of you who are curious about the timing of a new amendment in 1869 and are as bad with significant dates as I am, the Civil War ended in 1865, and, as such, it’s worth noting that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to Black people. I am not the first person to note that uh, we are clearly still working on that.

Anyway, for our purposes, the pertinent part of the 14th amendment is the Equal Protection Clause:

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Okay, very broadly, here’s what each clause actually does:

The Establishment Clause says that the US government cannot sponsor any religion, or involve itself in religion to the benefit of one religion over another. 

The Free Exercise clause says that the US government cannot stop someone from holding a religious belief (or force them to adhere to another religious belief)

The Equal Protection Clause prohibits discrimination on the basis of religious belief

These all look pretty great on paper, but in practice, enforcing them has been wildly hit or miss. I’m going to discuss why, so I’ll say up front that none of this should not be construed as an attack on Christianity. Religious faith is intensely personal, and I want to emphasize that I am in no way advocating for adherents to the Christian faith to be unable to practice that faith. I am a sincere advocate for everyone to be able to freely practice their own religious beliefs (or lack thereof), and that’s exactly what’s at issue here - when one religion is positioned above all others, anyone who does not believe in that particular religion is impacted detrimentally.

So with that caveat in place, it’s important to recognize the following: the United States is, and has always been, a majority Christian nation. 65% of Americans identified as Christian in 2019, which is a historic low. Even ten years back, it was closer to 85%. In accordance with the demographics of the US, Christianity is, if anything, over-represented in US government. 85.4% of US congressmen identify as Christian. 82 out of the 100 senators identify as Christian (I’m not counting members of congress or the senate who identify as members of the Church of Latter Day Saints in those numbers). Furthermore, every single president has identified themselves as Christian - the spiciest America has gotten in re: the religious beliefs of a POTUS was JFK, who was, you know, Catholic.

This is important, because it directly impacts how we interpret what “separation of church and state,” “free exercise of religion,” and “nondiscrimination on the basis of faith” actually mean. When a country is predominantly comprised of people who share the same faith, that faith becomes part of the shared cultural concept of national identity: even though the US is, in practice, relatively diverse in terms of ethnicities and religious faiths (as far as countries go), if you ask someone on the street to imagine an American, they are probably going to imagine a white dude who loves Flag and also Jesus. That national identity is reflected in the country’s chosen representatives, and in return, in the legislation passed by those representatives and the behavior expressly condoned by the government as a whole. The end result of all of this is that in the United States of America, Christianity and the exercise of government frequently intersect.

Take the late forties and early fifties. WWII is over, and two global superpowers have emerged that are at diametrical positions; there’s our old capitalist pal the US in one corner, and in the other, the godless, socialist menace of the USSR. I’m being silly and hyperbolic here, but not about the godless bit: the USSR was officially an athiest state, and the government forcibly converted its citizens to atheism. So, the US squints at this and swings hard in the opposite direction; this is a Christian nation, we are sticking “under god” in the pledge of allegiance, we are putting Ten Commandment sculptures in front of our courthouses, we are mandating prayer in school, and if you have an issue with any of that, you are not a patriotic American.

Some of that stuff from the 50s still exists today (“under god” is still kicking around), but a lot more of it is essentially outlawed thanks to the branch of government that I haven’t mentioned yet, the federal judiciary. How this played out was essentially that someone would be impacted by state-sponsored Christianity, they would sue, and their case would eventually be appealed up to the level of the Supreme Court, who would look at the Constitution, admit that it’s pretty unequivocal about the whole separation of church and state thing, and bar the state sponsored religious practice at issue, or at the very least ensure that the state was not sponsoring one faith to the exclusion of others. So, to return to our ten commandments in front of the courthouse or nativity scene outside of a government building; (I’m really simplifying things here but this is the gist) the court has repeatedly decided, those are fine, as long as you give fair play to any other religion that wants to erect their own religious display there too. It’s either that all religions have an equal opportunity to be represented, or no religion does.

I know, this is supposed to be about why The Satanic Temple is cool. We’re getting there.

Let’s jump ahead to the early 2000s. Bush Jr. is president, thanks in no small part to massive evangelical Christian support, and those evangelical Christians have some demands: they want schools to teach creationism, they’re gunning directly for reproductive rights, and they have had enough of this whole gay nonsense. A lot of legislation gets passed during the Bush era that gives the Evangelical base what they want, and among those big evangelical wins was on teaching intelligent design in schools. This didn’t happen everywhere, but some states basically said that intelligent design could be taught alongside evolution in public school science classes, and that evolution and intelligent design had to be portayed as equally valid theories.

Obviously, a lot people were upset about this, because... well, it’s science class. Among the people who thought this whole thing was bullshit was a guy named Bobby Henderson, who wrote an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education in 2005. Referencing the Supreme Court decisions I discussed earlier (either all religious beliefs get equal play or none of them do), Bobby demanded that along with evolution and intelligent design, Kansas schools devote equal time to teaching the creation story of his religious faith, and if any of this is sounding familiar, that’s because Bobby described his religious faith as “Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.”

The memetic potential of this argument was basically designed for the internet era, and it wasn’t too long before purported adherents to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was filing lawsuits that challenged all sorts of government practices that obviously skewed Christian. They were making classic reductio ad absurdum arguments; if it was ridiculous that the government should promote the message of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a given sphere, it was equally ridiculous that the government should promote the message of other religious faiths in that same sphere.

The whole pastafarian movement had one major weakness, however - it was expressly, deliberately silly. Nobody could mistake a Flying Spaghetti Monster argument to be made in good faith, and the courts used this to basically ignore FSM challenges that would otherwise be valid. Here’s what the Nebraska federal district court decided in the big Flying Spaghetti Monster case, Cavanaugh v. Bartlet:

“The Court finds that FSMism is not a ‘religion’ within the meaning of the relevant federal statutes and constitutional jurisprudence. It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education. Those are important issues, and FSMism contains a serious argument, but that does not mean that the trappings of the satire used to make that argument are entitled to protection as a ‘religion.’”

That’s the Pastafarian problem in a nutshell. They had great points, but they weren’t actually a religion, and that left the courts free to disregard their arguments by saying that they lacked standing. “Standing” is legalese for the concept of who is able to bring a lawsuit based on a particular act or law. This sounds esoteric, but it makes logical sense: If your neighbor gets hit by an ice cream truck, is injured, and is now hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole for medical debt, he has standing to sue the ice cream truck driver. He suffered an injury that was caused by the ice cream truck driver, and the court has the ability to direct the ice cream truck driver to pay for his medical bills and pain and suffering etc. If you, on the other hand, decide to sue the ice cream truck driver because they ran over your neighbor, well, did you actually get injured? Would it being about any sort of justice if the ice cream truck driver had to pay you money? If the answer is no and you try to sue anyway, the court’s going to kick that lawsuit out.

Constitutional challenges often die because the person suing doesn’t have standing to bring the case. Remember how I mentioned earlier that “one nation under god” is still in the Pledge of Allegiance? A case about that actually got all the way to the Supreme Court, before it was tossed out for lack of standing - the problem was that a student’s father had brought the lawsuit, instead of the student herself. Likewise, the Flying Spaghetti Monster cases usually went nowhere because the courts would say “okay, you’re claiming that this law is trampling on your right to practice your chosen religion, but your religion is deliberately ludicrous. Your holy book was published in 2006 and heavily features a beer volcano. You don’t actually believe in any of this, so you haven’t actually suffered the harm that you’re claiming this legislation caused.”

So, uh, how the hell does an athiest challenge the constitutionality of laws like the FSM movement tried to without just getting tossed out for lack of sincerity?

Okay. Okay. We’re finally here. Let’s talk about The Satanic Temple.

In 2013, after witnessing how the FSM movement failed to accomplish meaningful change, Lucien Greaves realized that even though the basic concept of what FSM was trying to accomplish was solid, the issue was in its execution. If you wanted to challenge laws that unconstitutionally favored Christianity, you couldn’t be joking around about your fake religion; you had to play it absolutely straight.

What Greaves came up with is incredibly clever. He set about constructing a new religion for the purpose of using the FSM playbook without falling into the same judicial pitfalls. He made sure that the new religion would constitute an actual belief system in the eyes of the law, which involved identifying the mission and core articulable tenents of the religion. I’m quoting them both below because they’re cool as hell:

The Mission of The Satanic Temple

“The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits.

The Satanic Temple has publicly confronted hate groups, fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict women's reproductive autonomy, exposed harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners in mental health care, organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations, and engaged in other advocacy in accordance with our tenets.”

The Seven Tenets of The Satanic Temple

1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.

2. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

3. One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.

4. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.

5. Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.

6. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

7. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

Tenets aside, though, this next bit is what just delights me to my core with how crafty it is: Instead of making up his own religious text and history, he went directly to the Bible and said (I’m paraphrasing) “the historical foundation of The Satanic Temple is the exact same as the historical foundation of Christianity. We share the same holy book, and our faiths are grounded in the same tradition. Here’s the only difference: We believe with all sincerity that the character in that book who said ‘hey, try the apple, the pursuit of knowledge is worth rebelling against authority for’ is actually the good guy in the story, and although we are not a theistic organization, it is our sincere religious belief to comport ourselves in the manner espoused by the literary character Satan.”

Holy shit, guys. Holy shit, that is smart. He set up his religion so that you couldn’t attack it for being fake without also attacking Christianity for being fake! Simultaneously, he designed a religion that would reliably produce the perfect reductio ad absurdum argument- you want to display your ten commandment statue on public land? Okay, chill, but per the Constitution, we get equal play, so if you want those ten commandments, you’d better be cool with them sitting right next to our 3000 lb bronze statue of children gazing adoringly up at Baphomet:

Oh, wait, you don’t want to have that statue on government property? Cool. Totally fine. Just take your ten commandments slabs away too, and we’ll call it a truce.

The Satanic Temple exists to protect individual constitutional rights. Regardless of your own religious sentiment, it’s hopefully easy enough to see how incredibly shitty it would be to have your elected government promote religious beliefs that you do not share, to have religious sentiments that you find abhorrent expressly condoned by the government, or to have your own rights of expression and against discrimination constrained by a government that expressly santions only the religious beliefs of the majority, in spite of the concepts expressed in the United States Constitution. The only way to challenge an unconstitutional law is to sue, and it takes a lot of time, effort, and most of all resources to see a constitutional lawsuit through. Organized religion and government entities have a much easier time defending those cases than an individual does in suing them; by supporting The Satanic Temple, you’re directly evening the odds.

P.S. I know I talk a big game about how cleverly The Satanic Temple was designed, but you know how you can tell that it’s actually brilliant? The IRS granted it tax exempt status as a religious entity in 2019. Yup. Even with the IRS directly under the thumb of Donald J. Trump, a man desperate to maintain evangelical support, the IRS finally had to concede that they could not find any reason why The Satanic Temple shouldn’t be treated the exact same way as any other church. Angry that a Satanic entity doesn’t have to pay taxes on its income? Well, buddy, get ready to learn what megachurches get away with.

[pinktatertots99]

PLEASE WRITE KANKRI HITTING ON RUFIOH THROUGH AN ELABORATE THESIS ITD BE SO FUNNY

nonnie...i would be so honored. THIS ONES FOR YOU and all my like, five rufkri shippers out there.

basically kinda sorta more a love confession but ey its kinda flirty with wha he talks about.

also for some who need the helps: rufioh uses 1′s for i’s, kankri uses 6′s for B’s, and he uses 9′s for O’s -ye i’m adding this just incase, we all need reminders cause kankri’s can be a fucking headache of a quirk-

-COUGHS- my archiveofourown link to this fic -COUGHS-

_____________________________

your name is rufioh nitram and your taking a breath for yourself for once. you find yourself in a dream bubble you re-imagined as your old lost boy's location: tall blue and pink tree's with red cherry colored petals on them and littered at their tops various treehives connected via bridge's, stair cases, the gist.

you lay back on one of them that was your's, a big blocky one that has a couple windmills on top of it laying on the ledge that covered the top of your front door. kicking your leg absentmindedly as ol nostalgia rings through you, you barely get this kinda alone time but talk bout the advantage's of dream bubbles and damara's nice descendant escorting you.

until you hear the grass crunch from under you. you could just ignore it, finally steal some time for yourself but that’s not how your gears work; damn rogue bullcrap. you open your colorless eyes and move to look over your left where your sitting and spot a blob of red and feel a weird sense of relief.

its none other then your groupies lead spokesman kankri vantas walkin around trying to find you from how he keeps looking to his sides. kankri’s...something alright. sure everyone complains bout how much he babbles on bout half baked facts, preachy, pushy, an angry lil firecracker; actually maybe that’s why he’s so angry.

oddly though your not around alot for those, you’ll eyeroll at somethings but otherwise he’s pretty chill around you. bonus he’s celibate so you finally have someone who won’t try hitting on you every time you breathe in their direction. also your a mutant like him so mutant bro’s unite you’d think, it was cool finding you weren’t the only ‘cullbait’ of the gang honestly.

you go to get up and stretch your wings and back a bit. you may aswell make a sick entrance. you go run two steps and jump, your falling for a few seconds and it has your adrenaline pump before your wings pick up their flapping and have you flying downward slowly.

you saw kankri see you with near panic but pretty neutral look, dude barely had any sorta reactions but that was alright if it meant you could spot the teeniest moment he’d be thrown off as you land on the grass softly five steps away from him.

“9h.” he replies as you snicker. “pretty s1ck r1ght?” “in y9ur ling9 yes 6ut i advice y9u t9 please try n9t t9 use it s9 l99sely especially ar9und th9se in medically unwell situati9ns.”

you rub behind your neck. “sorry. anyways wha’ up? pass1n by?” you notice a pile of papers in his arms, maybe he’s gonna go preaching to some of those new human ghosts maybe? your betting the dude with the pointy glasses will be a conflict to him if he does.

“9h n9 actually i came t9 find y9u.” he states and you perk up a bit. find you? “megid9′s descendant was kind en9ugh t9 esc9rt me here.” ah her, you really should’ve figured. you take a step or two closer lookin down to see him cause dude’s fuckin short. “yeah? uhhh alr1ght, well what’s up?”

he looks back to his papers almost, hesitant? kankri vantas nervous? tarnish the thought till he looks back up clearing his throat. “genetical uniqueness.” ...what? “what?” you ask as he continues. “genetical uniqueness in 9ne’s self is a kn9wn fact9r 9ne sees in an9ther that is a small step to a gr9wing infatuati9n in said individual whether it 6e aesthetical, physical or pers9nality wise.”

...you...you don’t know what’s going on. is he giving a lecture? seminar? on genetics? oh gog messiah’s dangit kankri may be your boy as you’ve called him before (not around him you know better) but man there’s only so much of him you can chill with until it starts getting to well, this point. you don’t stop him though cause kankri vantas never stops until he’s finished.

“s9me f9rms 9f genetical uniqueness c9uld c9me fr9m all 9f th9se and m9re. f9r example, an unc9mm9n s9cietal genetic that while n9t unc9mm9n can 6e seen as a f9rm of interest to s9me9ne and unique. whether freckles, hatchmarks or, wings perhaps.” your wings flap at that.

“9f c9urse t9 t9uch 9n the first three f9rms 9f attraction i mentioned if y9u d9n’t mind my reference 6ack t9 the su6jects at hand, an aesthetical attracti9n t9 certain f9rms 9f attire and style that differ’s fr9m 9ne’s 9wn can 6e an9ther. 9f c9urse this is entirely su6jective as n9 indivudals are the same 9n this manner h9wever 9pp9site’s attract seem t9 have m9re likelih99d t9 find 69nds in a multitude 9f ways. examples 9f this kind 9f su6ject is perhaps a rebel-esque design that c9rrelates t9 s9me a resistance t9 a c9nf9rma6le s9ciety with it’s 9wn strict regulati9ns and laws. s9mething like rigid and ripped attire 9r sharp disc9l9red hair c9uld 6e examples that 9ne wh9 while n9t p9ssibly sharing th9se designs with them finds inspiring t9 l99k t9.”

you look at your ripped jeans and vest. you...kinda still dont know what he’s going on about, but you keep listening.

“the sec9nd aspect, physical is 9n a similar subjectivity as while 9ne finds a physical aspect 9f s9me9ne attractive an9ther will n9t. h9wever physical attracti9n inv9lves s9me f9rm 9f the 9ther individuals 69dy they deem as p9tentiality t9 perhaps engage in a quadranted arrangement with said individual whether h9rns, fangs, a smile that gives a pleasant crease to their facial structure, their 69dy language when shy 9r excited, perhaps even height as acc9unta6le as studies sh9w a pred9minant interest in a taller partner for feelings of pr9tecti9n, sta6ility, 9r an9ther f9rm 9f 9pp9site’s attracting if the 9ther party isn’t their perceived interest’s 9wn height.”

you rub the back of your neck...nervously. your not dumb your getting some serious implications. you don’t wanna believe them, nah no way kankri’s celibate maybe he’s talking bout someone else? alotta their team has nice smiles and taller then him or dress ‘rebelistic’ as he calls it.

“lastly there’s attraction to pers9nality. m9st w9uld like a pers9nality they find in s9me f9rm similar t9 their 9wn t9 gain n9t 9nly m9re in c9mm9n t9 create a 69nd 6ut als9 as a starting part f9r c9mm9nality t9 make it easier t9 take the necessary steps. s9me h9wever may find attracti9n t9 a pers9nality that differs fr9m their 9wn. why is dependa6le 9n certain pers9nal aspects but m9st are 9ut of jeal9usy f9r seeing s9me9ne they are n9t, 9r perhaps admirati9n t9 have what they have 6ut cann9t 9r are una6le t9 yet due t9 their 9wn pers9nal reas9ns and s9 they try finding a partner wh9 has s9me 9f th9se aspects they cann9t harness. n9t in a c9ntr9lling way mind y9u n9r t9 use them 6ut due t9 a f9rm 9f admirati9n and interest.”

you nod as he perks up. “ah, ap9l9gies h9wever menti9ning quadrants earlier. they have a varying r9le in these f9rms 9f attracti9n 6ut i failed t9 reitterate this 6eing m9re 9pen t9 interpretati9n 9n any f9rm 9f quadrants i’m referring t9 as many 9f these examples in this thesis can 6e f9r any quadrant. als9 ap9l9gies f9r the menti9n 9f this su6ject due t9 y9ur recent 6reak fr9m y9ur matesprit i didn’t mean f9r any kind 9f harm t9 y9u 9n it.” “nah 1t’s okay 1 get 1t. 1′m f1ne.”

he nods going back to his papers, least it looks like he’s almost done. “thank y9u. n9w where was i? right. n9w many examples 9f pers9nality attracti9n vary fr9m pers9n t9 pers9n 6ut i shall use a hyp9thetical and keep in mind it’s 9nly hyp9thetical. perhaps s9me9ne is rather una6le to s9cialize with any f9rm 9f 9ther parties due t9 varying 9pp9site interests or 9stracizati9n fr9m said gr9up. perhaps they meet s9me9ne wh9, perhaps shares s9me f9rm 9f genetical uniqueness t9 them, perhaps als9 having similar experiences t9 what their shared s9ciety 9r even different s9cieties share similarities t9. b9th gr9w and act very differently due t9 h9w they react and are raised in said s9ciatal climate. while the first hyp9thetical partner gr9ws t9 6e m9re f9refr9nt and 9pen t9 their 9wn th9ughts that s9me find c9ntr9versial the sec9nd partner is pers9nally flexible with an exteri9r design and m9re positive pers9nality s9me find m9re likely t9 fl9ck t9 them m9re.”

he’s hiding behind his papers but you swear you saw those cheeks turning a tint of red. your blushing too but you don’t know if its the same as his. your pumpbiscuit is beating hard but you don’t know if its infatuation or anxiety.

“perhaps, when the first pers9n sees this they find themselves just as infatuated to make themself kn9wn t9 this pers9n due t9 their 9pen relia6ility. perhaps they als9 feel a f9rm 9f jeal9usy that they are unable t9 have the same people-friendly exteri9r t9 them and, wish they had that ability t9 d9 s9. may6e the 9ther seems, at least t9 the first individual, 9pen t9 them and what they have t9 say 9r are fine with spending time with them that has the first individual to sl9wly c9me t9 terms with their 9wn feelings 9n this pers9n. even, s9 far as t9 admit even with their 9wn pers9nal views 9f themselves and their 9wn 6eliefs, they may find them, expenda6le t9wards this individual.”

okay no the beating is anxiety now, this is WAY too much you see it all now and your...scared. your really scared now. he sighs and clears his throat again. “in c9nclusi9n i 6elieve these f9ur fact9r’s are likely c9mp9nants t9 6uild a f9rm 9f r9mantic attracti9n 9ne may find in an9ther. s9, what did y9u think 9f it?”

your horrified, your rubbing your arm nervously and trying to put on a smile for him. “1t’s...pretty good yeah. real conv1nc1ng.” you feel like such a douchebag right now getting nervous. your recent break with horrus was, okay shitty to say, but it was nice having a break from romance.

you know you know that’s really shitty, but you feel the need to put all you can in it and you get drained and can’t keep going sometimes. its like the break charges you up so then your back to giving him your all and it repeats. it sucks, but he loves you and you feel even more douchy at the idea of telling him you can’t do it anymore, ever, after yanking his chain for this long.

you...don’t want that for kankri. your at a 50% charge right now on romancing least flushed wise, you never tried the other quad’s before. what if he wants flushed? you can’t do that you’d lose him if you pulled what you do to horrus on him cause you really kinda, don’t know how to stop or talk about it. 

even then you don’t even know if your both broken up for good or what, you could end up with him again and then it’d be a damara situation and you don’t want kankri to be your next damara he keeps grudges way longer then her (which your surprised she tolerates you enough even with her grudge but you digress).

even then all he talked about felt, surface level. like everyone’s crush’s on you; except meenah which guess this means she’s the only one never to flirt with you now. damn it. still though he doesn’t even really know you, sure he could learn but, do you really want him to? learn about how much of a fraud you are? how all this is an act and you honestly have no fucking clue why anyone likes you? how you can’t be your own troll? gog he’d be so disappointed he goes on about trolls equalizing and needing their own rights to be their own troll but you can’t do that; not even for him probably.

point is: your shit at flushed and you don’t want kankri involved. you wanna give him those free feelings your classpect is supposed to do. hard part is, how’re you gonna let him down?

before you can think further he speaks up. “i’m glad y9u think s9. y9ur an excellent listener rufi9h i d9 genuinely appreciate it.” you see a twitch at the end of his lip and it pains you the fact he almost smiled. “perhaps we can have m9re 9f these meetups next time?” he asks taking a step to leave.

your surprised but kinda relieved too, least he’s not asking you out, but then again he’s also coming back sometime. meaning he might get more and more confident to actually pop the question your not ready to burst his bubble with your response with yet.

you smile though and wave at him. “ahah, sure sure 1′ll be here for 1t. or, we can meetup here?” he nods moving to look away as he walks off. “i will make n9te 9f that f9r 9ur next c9nversati9n. take care nitram.” he states, you watch as he gets more distant and vanishes in the forest.

you sigh long and relieved and go to fly back to your spot, moving to lay down on it though as you let it all soak in. your rufioh nitram and you just got flirted with by the kankri celibate vantas himself.

[theres-no-protocol-for-this]

Connectivity

My one-shot has become a two-shot somehow. So here’s the continuation of yesterday’s ‘humans adopt a CombatUnit’ story. You can read the first part here.

(Cass)

"Shit, Kris, it's basically a toddler." I sucked in a breath and muttered curses at deities unknown.

Our newly adopted CombatUnit sat in the co-pilot's chair, eyes closed. It remained aware of the world around it, tensing when Kris accidentally dropped a wrench, but it no longer responded to our voices in any meaningful way. Its brainwaves looked like spaghetti, and the rest of its vital signs didn't fare much better.

I pulled up one of the modular cushion chairs and sat down next to the construct. I touched its chest through the blanket, and when it didn't startle or pull away, I rubbed large, slow circles across its chest. That seemed to calm to the Unit, though it still occasionally tried to break free of its restraints.

Watching it struggle broke my heart.

Serenity worked overtime to establish some kind of connection between my augments and the construct, which would hopefully resemble the brainwave patterns and data flow of a handler and stabilize the Unit. It was a hack job with a high probability of failure, but it was still better than letting the construct suffer.

Kris leaned over my shoulder like an asshole and peered at the SecUnit. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it was manufactured less than three years ago."

"Deity! Why the hell was it out there by itself, then?"

I shrugged and gestured at the news feed with my free hand. "Your guess is as good as mine."

A moment later, Serenity notified me that the connection framework was in place and my augments were functioning within reasonable limits. We'd see how long that lasted, but for now they wouldn't fry me or the SecUnit.

"All right, show time." I looked up at Kris. "If anything happens, Sere can disconnect us. But give it a few moments before panicking, all right? This is all jury-rigged, so it might take time for everything to kick in."

Kris pulled back and stared at me. "You're doing something dangerously stupid for a machine, love. This could give you a permanent lobotomy or a heart attack." He frowned and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Bringing this thing on board was a terrible idea."

I kept my voice low, but anger simmered under the surface. "So what was the alternative? Leaving it out there to die?"

"You know what I meant, Cass."

I thought I knew what he meant, but before I could say anything else, the world briefly fell away in a shower of sparks. My augments logged so many error messages at once that the log filled up instantaneously, but they managed to achieve calibration, and suddenly I was aware of another mind existing alongside my own.

The sensation was uncomfortable but mercifully brief.

Unlike me, the CombatUnit had all the appropriate wiring for a brain-to-brain connection, and it was designed specifically with a handler in mind. So, it had less trouble accepting the connection or responding to Serenity's commands to align itself with me.

I felt its fear and confusion and loneliness.

"Shh," I whispered, hopefully out loud. "It's all right. You're safe. You're aboard Serenity. Do you remember what happened?"

The construct blinked a few times before its eyes focused on me. Waves and waves of raw data — information about previous missions, vital signs, other statistics, and outputs from its diagnostics and governor module — flooded into my system. I backburnered all of it because I'm only human, and I would need time to review the data.

Lots of time I didn't have.

"Was that the answer to my question?"

The construct nodded.

Meanwhile, Serenity began parsing the vast amounts of data provided by the Unit. The ship's bot wasn't sentient by any stretch of the imagination, but it had enough pattern-matching and data-crunching modules that it put humans to shame.

A message from the ship popped up on my heads-up display, complete with a timer and dozens of lines of code I couldn't parse. The Combat SecUnit has relayed a concern regarding its continued functionality. There appears to be a countdown to its termination. Connecting to your augments has halted the countdown for an unknown amount of time.

"What? What? What the actual fuck?"

Brow furrowed, I stared at the results scrolling across my display surface and couldn't make heads or tails of them. I know how to repair a ship, not how to mind-meld with a human-bot hybrid created by some corporation with a negative amount of morals.

Kris joined in a shared workspace and also perused through the documents. "I've heard of this," he explained after seeing my stricken expression. "SecUnits have distance limits, I think. If they get too far from their clients, they governor module fries their brains."

"I didn't want to know that, but keep going anyway. How much worse could it be?"

My companion chuckled darkly. "It looks like the Combat models don't have a distance-to-client limit, per se. Instead, they rely on regular check-ins from a handler. Each time a handler contacts the Unit, the time to termination is reset. If the timer gets down low enough, the governor triggers a countdown to a shutdown sequence. Looks like there's a number of intermediate steps, but that's the gist of it."

I was absolutely lost for words. "We do this to people?"

"Yeah, Cass, the Corporation Rim does all kinds of awful things to people." My companion pulled back and paced the room. "It's why I escaped when I could."

"I didn't… know that."

Kris shrugged. "I don't usually talk about it." He waved the topic away with a careless hand. "Let's deal with the SecUnit."

I looked up at the construct and found it watching me with those unreadable eyes. The blank, neutral expression on its face might have belonged to a statue. At least its vital signs were slowly returning to more appropriate ranges, and it was no longer fighting its restraints.

"Try asking for its performance reliability?" the light-haired pilot suggested.

"What's that?"

"An overall measure of how well a construct is doing, usually."

I took a deep breath and squeaked, "SecUnit, what is your, uh, performance reliability?"

What I wanted to do was hide in my cabin for a few hours and maybe cry into a pillow, but we didn't have time for that. Not when we were authorized to leave the station in under three hours. This would be a bad time for a mental breakdown.

In the feed, the construct answered, 72% and holding steady.

That didn't sound like a canned response, which gave me hope.

[whimsicalbumblebee]

I posted 2,429 times in 2021

86 posts created (4%)

2343 posts reblogged (96%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 27.2 posts.

I added 986 tags in 2021

#13 sentinels: aegis rim - 298 posts

#aa - 150 posts

#kh - 111 posts

#omori - 98 posts

#twewy - 76 posts

#reblog from artblog - 73 posts

#bee buzzes - 62 posts

#deltarune - 46 posts

#apollo justice - 37 posts

#deltarune spoilers - 35 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i dont know how old they are in r;n dash but like? by all means kurisu and okabe should have developed more of an undetstanding and a proper

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

This just hit me while rewatching episode 5 about how Neku and Joshua had to open a wall to get to Udagawa but somehow all these players were already there.

Thanks to @ gramoturtle too for pushing this thought process!

Major Spoilers for the game are under the cut!!

The game makes it clear that where you wake up isn't consistent. The anime kinda makes it clear but not quite as much since they usually wake up in Scramble Crossing or by Hachiko.

However I always assumed all the players would wake up in the same spot. That... doesn't seem to be the case, even in the game.

Firstly I think Minamimoto, for obvious game spoilery reasons pf wanting to be Composer, is singling out Neku and Joshua. Particularly Joshua. But at the same time, needs to get rid of the other players.

If the Game Master has control over where players wake up, I can imagine that's exactly why Neku and Joshua woke up far from Udagawa with a level three wall separating their path to that part of the city while also putting every other player within that area prone to taboo noise attacks.

Its basically an execution of players. He doesn't care about them, just his own goal of getting to Joshua.

The game also implies the reapers have some semblance of control over where the players wake up so this doesn't seem like an 'anime only' thing.

Two points I can think off the bat. Week 1, Day 3 I think, Neku and Shiki wake up in the dark concert hall. There are still players besides them, notably Beat and Rhyme but they don't seem to have woken up in the same spot, implying not all players awake in the same parts of the city.

Second, in week 3 with Beat, when they wake up in the Underpass by Miyashita park, this was an intentional awakening point by Kariya to intentionally stir up memories of Beat's death. Its where Beat is forced to remember his motives and how he failed to protect Rhyme. As for the reason other than plot? I'm not sure why Kariya wanted to do that. He doesn't seem clear in his motives either though and that's another can of worms.

TL;DR. My guess is that Minamimoto intentionally isolated Joshua and Neku from the other players so that he can erase all of them but those two.

16 notes • Posted 2021-05-10 04:16:35 GMT

#4

13 Sentinels and their Love Languages

This is really just my take on how each of these characters most strongly express their love platonically and otherwise! ^^ I’ll put explanations in a reblog once I actually finish!

Acts of service:

Megumi Yakushiji

Ei Sekigahara

Ryoko Shinonome Gift giving:

Nenji Ogata

Tsukasa Okino

Tamao Kurabe Quality time:

Iori Fuyusaka

Tomi Kisaragi

Yuki Takamiya Words of affirmation:

Takatoshi Hijiyama

Keitaro Miura

Shu Amiguchi Physical touch:

Juro Kurabe

Natsuno Minami

Renya Gouto

This may change over time as I’m still working on the explanations! 

20 notes • Posted 2021-03-29 02:41:34 GMT

#3

OMORI KH AU MASTERPOST

This will be updated overtime but here here is the Masterpost for everything related to the AU!

I don't write it in order but I will probably try to make it as cohesive as possible!

General gist of the Story (Intro post to the AU)

The Characters + Designs:

Sunny and Mari

Character Details (no designs) (Hero, Aubrey, Kel, Basil)

Aubrey

Basil

Kel

Hero

Prequel

Sunny acquiring the Keyblade + First meeting with everyone

The Accident:

The Accident and aftermath (+ art of The Accident)

Basil's reaction (also general comments + Mari and Sunny's beta designs)

Post Accident Adventure:

Basil and Omori

26 notes • Posted 2021-07-15 01:34:24 GMT

#2

Happy White Day 03/14!  READ RIGHT TO LEFT!

 Here’s an idea I had yesterday! I thought it was a cute idea to have the guys ask Megumi help in making chocolate gifts, esp since her cooking is known to be really good! ^^

Bonus Hijiyama and Okino:

31 notes • Posted 2021-03-15 03:38:20 GMT

#1

TWEWY EPISODE 5 in a nutshell

33 notes • Posted 2021-05-08 03:56:45 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[claraxbarton]

MCU Bucky Barnes

So here’s the thing.

I’m a costume designer by trade, and one thing that I actually really love about Captain America: The Winter Soldier (okay, among the things I love) is the costume design and the rhetorical value given to the clothes and, well, costumes in this movie. 

For example - when Sam and Steve have their heart to heart on the bridge that ends with Sam saying “but he doesn’t even know you” and Steve saying “he will” before going to steal his old uniform - the one Bucky last saw him in when he was Bucky. There are some other great costume points in this movie, actually a LOT of them (costumes, not wigs, don’t at me because I KNOW).

But one thing that has always stood out to me, and not in a good way, is the “I’m with you til the end of the line” flashback.

Now, here’s the thing, it’s not JUST about the clothes. We’re in MCU verse, so it’s MCU canon - obviously, the Steve and Bucky duo is drastically different in Marvel comics canon so - and Bucky starts this scene by saying his folks wanted to give Steve a ride to the cemetery.

Which is super cool and nice. So one, we know Bucky’s dad is still alive - and his mom, but two, we know they have a car.

So this is supposed to be when Steve is around 16? So it’s... 1936 (according to MCU wiki it totally is)

So cars.

Crazy popular ever since they started having closed bodies and all that. BUT, were they crazy popular in CITIES in 1936? Especially in the middle of the Great Depression?

There’s some evidence that actually no, that car ownership in a city like NYC was something like 1 car per every 43 people. Then again, looking at the NYC.gov 2015 Mobility Report we see that the population of NYC in 1936 is something like 7.2 million, and the number of registered vehicles in 764,000... or roughly one per every 9.4-ish persons. Which is a pretty drastically different number. This doesn't, of course, account for taxis or fleet cars being registered - so the number might seem inflated. I still think it’s probably something closer to 1 car per every 20 than every 43 but... I’m too lazy to dig that much deeper at the moment. Plus I'm sick, which is fueling this in the first place.

So, anyway you slice it, Bucky’s family was in 11%, 5% or 2.33% of New Yorkers who own cars in 1936. Which says something, I think, about Bucky Barnes that we don’t always - ever? - think of in fandom.

I’m not going to say that Bucky Barnes was loaded. Maybe his family owned a garage or a grocery store or a delivery service or a funeral home...?? or something. So, the vehicle could be occupational as opposed to private usage - but either way it’s a statement. Bucky’s family has money and/or Bucky’s family has steady employment.

I’ve been there. I’ve read the fics where Bucky works at the docks to put Steve through art school and get him his medicine. I love those fics. I love that head canon.

But I... don’t think it’s realistic in light of some evidence showing us that, actually, Bucky wasn’t doing too badly for himself.

Let’s now actually look at CLOTHING. Here’s the whole scene via youtube, if you want to follow along with what is about to get RIDICULOUS.

Actually, before I dive in, who is the costumer for this movie? And should I be like... reading into all this as much as I am?

Judianna Makovsky - fellow New Jersey..Ian?ite?no clue - 3 time Oscar nominee and designer of 5 MCU films and a lot of other big budget movies, including quite a few period pieces dealing with issues of race and class (The Legend of Bagger Vance, Seabiscuit, The Little Princess.. and also like Harry Potter and The Quick and the The Dead.) So, should I have some faith in Judianna Makovsky’s designs? I’m gonna go with yeah, yeah I should. 

So, back to the movie. The scene.

This is post funeral. We’re in 1936. As a general rule, the dress, colors and style of mourning wear was pretty much formalized in the early Victorian era. There was a great - read PHENOMENAL - exhibit at the MET a few years back on Mourning-wear and I’m still reeling from how lovely everything was - but the gist of it is this: you wore black when someone died. If you were a lady, and especially if you were a rich lady, you then went through a few different colors (dull black to SHINY black to purple/mauve and gray and white and then back to color within six months to one year). By the 1930s only the really rich were sticking to the actual rules of mourning - or like, really old people. And, of course, really old rich people. Really old rich WHITE people. Because it needs to be said: these are WHITE customs. I'm not saying people of other ethnicities didn’t follow them, but these are basically British Victorian practices that were assimilated into American culture.

I’m not going to go off on a huge sidebar about American fashion following in French dressmaking and British tailoring, but I need to say at least that much. Everyone who was anyone knew you got your dresses made in France or in the French style and you got your suits made in England - Savile Row in specific. I am NOT implying Bucky’s got himself an English suit, fyi. I just... have to be thorough.

BACK TO THE SCENE:

We’ve got our boy Steve. STEVE. Who just buried Sarah Rogers and what is he wearing...?

For starters, he’s wearing a windbreaker, check out the 1933 ad below, he’s the guy almost giving us the Fonz finger gesture, or maybe guy in the fedora on the end.

This thing isn’t falling apart at the seams, but it’s a very nondescript not really gray, not really blue - maybe was at one point. It also doesn’t FIT Steve. It also, in the ad above, would cost about $165.40 in today’s money.

My guess? It’s Bucky’s old windbreaker. Because it’s not cheap and because it’s just a bit too big on Steve. 

He’s also wearing a shirt that is maybe tan? And a brown tie and maybe - MAYBE black trousers. And if those trousers are black, it’s the only black thing he’s wearing. Not even a black tie, or a black arm band (which I’m pretty sure - but also pretty aggressively atheist so I don’t know - the Catholic Church would have provided for chief mourners and pall bearers right?). We also have our depressing as all shit Depression surroundings to clue us in: Steve Rogers ain’t loaded. Steve Rogers is poor as dirt. Side note: boys. Hiding a key under the ONE FUCKING BRICK on a walkway is not like... a smart idea???

So we can guess a few things here, we can guess that Steve and Sarah were really struggling - this checks out with the rest of MCU canon (wearing newspapers stuffed in his shoes, even when he had nothing he had Bucky, etc.) - and that all money probably went towards Steve’s numerous ailments, food and then the TB medication or treatment, as it was, that was available to Sarah.

We can maybe guess that Steve and Sarah weren’t very religious -but I don’t feel qualified to impart anything except my own agenda here so I’m not taking that stance. But like, real talk, not even an arm band?? 

But, well, let’s move on to the point of this whole long ass thing anyway?

--

Then we go to Mr. Barnes, looking dapper AF. Also, hey, check out this ad from 1933 featuring... pretty much exactly what Bucky is wearing down to the god-damn two-tone shoes:

If you’re curious, yeah $24.98 in 1936 is $475.44. I'm not suggesting Bucky Barnes went out and bought a brand new suit for Steve’s mother’s funeral - for one thing, this ad is from 1933. BUT, that suit fits Bucky. Quite well, and it’s in good shape. He’s also sporting that super stylish mid-late 30s into 40s deeply angled collar shirt - as is our dude up in the ad - and so we know these clothes are at least new-ish. We also can see that the suit is definitely of the mid-30s moving into the boxy silhouette of the later 30s and early 40s and NOT the look of the 20s and early 30s, which has an almost bell-bottom fullness to the legs instead of our straight-leg here (though we can debate nuance if you want to hit up my DMs.)

I should note, Bucky’s shirt is not bright and pristine white - it’s kind of grayish? And I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be an old-timey sepia thing or an indication that Bucky can’t afford to... bleach a white shirt? So that’s an odd choice for sure because we’re still in an age when a crisp, white collar shirt means something (Hey, if you want to hear me go on about the democratization of men’s fashion via shirt collars and 19th century Victorian suits, let me know because I am READY).

All this is to say: I don’t think Bucky Barnes is a poor dock worker. I think Bucky Barnes of MCU canon. Okay, so the MCU wiki on Bucky/The Winter Soldier is an actual mess (because it tells us that Sarah died in 1936 and that’s FINE but I’m not going back to change my math because I’m SICK so just... I went back and changed it. She died in 1936. Fine. The damn wiki also says that “a year later, during their art class, Barnes and Rogers found out that the United States of America had joined World War II. Which, like, I’m sick, but there are a few years between 1936 and December 8 1941... just... I’m no rocket doctor but...

ANYWAY. Bucky is a three time YMCA welterweight boxing champion by this “year later”/ 1941-1942. He and Steve are also in an ART CLASS together. Bucky also trained Steve in boxing at Goldie’s gym before the two of them went to enlist - Steve rejected and Bucky, again quoting MCU wiki, “drafted” (which I'm gonna take to mean he didn’t try to enlist when Steve got rejected, they went home and Bucky got called up later but... hey, who knows?!).

So, I can’t easily find the prices of gym memberships in NYC in the 1930s right now because I don’t feel like wading through all of the articles complaining about Equinox pricing in 2019. But I do know that part of Roosevelt’s WPA (Works Progress Administration) building projects included building more public gyms - as well as libraries, auditoriums, pools, parks etc. Check out your local public buildings - if they are WPA projects they will have a cool plaque like my local NJ library does! All that is to say, there were free or very cheap PUBLIC options where Bucky could have trained Steve.

Bucky trained Steve in a private gym. Do I like to think that this is the same gym Steve and America’s ass are working out in in The Avengers? Yes, Yes I do. Do I like to think that Steve likes to box because it reminds him of Bucky? Yes, yes I do.

But moving on: it’s another sign of wealth.

So is this “art class.” Whether we are in 1937 or 1941 - we’re still in the Depression. Steve still has all of his health issues and presumably accompanying “medication” (wanna talk 1930s medicine? Again, slide into my DMs or shoot me an ask). So Steve either has a side job making enough to cover all of that, rent? and enrollment in an art class.

OR maybe Steve is teaching the art class and Bucky is his model for life drawing instruction (yeah, it’s a fic bunny I’m sharing with the world).

OR maybe... Bucky is paying the rent and other things or Steve is living with Bucky and can afford the class and meds... somehow or...

OR I'm not saying that Steve is Bucky’s kept man because Steve Rogers would punch anyone who dared to say such a thing.

All I’m saying is, Bucky Barnes was not a poor dude. Bucky Barnes... had some money.

And also I’m about to be late for my doctor’s appointment so I gotta run.

At me with your thoughts!

[chxseungyoun]

lee jeno 《 dial 143 ♡

pairing: reader x cupid! jeno ft. dreamies

genre: au, fluff, supernatural.

words: 6.8K

author’s note: the longest i have written tbh. It took me three weeks to finish this. ;;

Jeno was a junior cupid. See, in the cupid community, before you get to the honorary level of actually matchmaking people, you have to go through some training. Cupids who end up missing the criteria receive grave punishments and that is why Eros, the leader of all cupids decided to implement such training. Jeno was not necessarily fond of the idea of being trained before he could actually do what he was designed for. To him, he much preferred to just go about and help soulmates fall in love with one another but that was just not the case.

He even tried to beg his mentor, Jaehyun, to try and convince the higher ranks to let him skip out on this training. Jaehyun was firm about it however, that it was necessary for all junior cupids to go through it before they become full-pledged cupids. Without seeing a gleam of hope, Jeno just went along with it.

There were numerous trainings offered for junior levels. Some were more for the theoretical practice of matchmaking while the others are more hands on. Jeno was classified for the hands on option by Jaehyun. He always knew that Jeno was popular with his fellow trainees but not as much with actual human beings.

This is why he was sent down to earth to host a radio station which focused on love struggles by the listeners. This was not Jeno’s cup of tea but did he actually have a choice. Luckily enough, the radio station was owned by Jaehyun who just like any other cupid, can take form of a normal human. Meaning without their wings and all that.

Jeno was already dreading having to talk to humans to listen about their dilemmas because he thought that as soon as you had fates met and love arrows shot then your job was done. Apparently, he had more to find about how their job actually works,

To add onto it, Jeno had to work with another human manning the broadcasting station. His name was Jaemin, and he was quite the charmer or so it may seem. All the female staff in the station would literally fall down in a love trance for him. Jeno would only watch at it, if they only knew that this boy already has been doused with a love shot from one of his fellow cupids, Chenle.

“Welcome to the Dream Station! My name’s Jaemin but you can call me Nana.” Jaemin smiled as he offered a hand towards Jeno who reluctantly shook with it.

“Thank you.” Jeno bowed before taking his seat across from Jaemin.

“So this is your first time as a disc jockey, right?” He smiles warmly at the skeptical Jeno.

“Yeah. I never actually expected to be doing this…but here we are.” He responded in half honesty.

Jaemin could see that Jeno was a bit standoffish but he did not take that into offense. He just thought that since this was Jeno’s first that he may be a bit nervous with it. Surprisingly, he was considerate. One of the key points of why females were so attracted to him.

“You know our job isn’t that simple. We have to somehow connect to the hearts of the listeners and sometimes place ourselves in their shoes.” Jaemin noted as Jeno tried to feign like he had been listening. He already knew this from his training so he did not see the need to hear it all over again.

“Sure. Jaehyun—hyung, told me to be your shadow for the mean time.” He tried to say calmly and when he glanced from the other side of the studio, the older male just gave him a thumbs up.

The rest of the hour, Jaemin explained to Jeno the concept of the radio show. They would be receiving calls from the listeners and they would share them secrets and problems that they would need advice with. However, it was a live broadcast as well so you can both listen from the radio station or watch from the internet. He gave Jeno a small warning that he needs to muster his facial expressions so he wouldn’t intimidate the viewers.

“Do I really have to?” Jeno asked as he glanced at the camera that was being set up in front of them.

“Don’t be nervous! With your looks, I think you’ll instantly be liked by the public.” Jaemin smiled as he prepared the script for today’s show.

Then began the show. It had the usual sappy love music being played at the start before Jaemin introduced himself as well as Jeno, as the new member of the station.

You were more of a viewer than a listener so you decided to watch through their website. You could see the amount of heart bubbles floating on the screen when they zoomed in on Jeno. You had to admit that he did look handsome, almost angelic if you were honest. However, your attention had always been focused on the original host of the show, Jaemin.

You two went to school together and lucky enough, he was in almost all your classes. You believed the heavens shined upon you by doing so but the problem is, Jaemin probably only sees you as someone who he would just have to see while he was still in school. You basically had a crush on someone who probably never cared for your existence.

Ring Ring Ring

 You were brought back to reality when you heard that familiar tone. It was time for their call segment which was just conveniently named Dial 143 or Dial I Love You. It was one of your favorite parts since you get to see Jaemin’s perspective about love and you can picture yourself being in those situations with him. You knew it was a bit delusional of you to do so but anyone can dream, right?

“Since our DJ Jeno here is a bit new. We’ll have him listen to the usual love struggles first before we let him take on his own call, okay? I hope you guys would understand. I know you all are excited to hear him too.” Jaemin smiled at the camera and you could just feel your heart jump out.

You did not even realize that slight grimace Jeno did when Jaemin spoke. Your attention was all set on the latter.

The show proceeded with Jaemin responding to a problem about a girl falling in love with someone who she cannot have or she was not destined for. Jaemin explained that sometimes, if you work hard, they would be able to notice your efforts too.

As Jeno listened, he could tell that Jaemin did not know a single thing about cupid’s work. Well, how could he when he was just a normal human being. He then interjected in call which caused surprised around the studio. “It doesn’t happen like that.”

“Oh? Then how does it happen?” The intrigued Jaemin asked Jeno.

“When somebody does not fall in love with you the same way you did, then it’s most likely that you didn’t get sh---“ before he could continue the sentence with being shot by an arrow, he saw Jaehyun’s warning look from across the studio. “You didn’t get the right person for you. You are destined for someone who can make you happier. Not just some crush you develop out of physical looks.” He sighed softly and the studio was quiet.

The dry air only got disrupted when they heard a bell. That bell was usually the signal when there is a massive likes received from the online streaming. Jaemin gave the latter a warm smile before glancing at the camera. “You all liked Jeno’s answer, didn’t you? You’re a natural.”

Jeno was about to say something to retort back but decided to hold his tongue. The show went on and Jeno seems to be catching up with the show’s gist. Soon, it ended and the team were reading through the comments. Everybody seems to be delighted by the new addition but only one comment still focused on Jaemin. You were not as easily swayed like the other viewers after all.

“She has always been such a loyal fan of Jaemin. We always thought he had a secret girlfriend because of that.” Jaehyun commented as he gave Jaemin a pat on the shoulder.

“It’s always nice to read some of these but I’m already dating someone. You know that, hyung.” Jaemin grinned at the older male.

Jeno just watched their little exchange of affection and proceeded to read more of the comments. He realized that they actually provided good feedback that can help a cupid perform better and he may have secretly jotted some notes.

With the show ending, Jaehyun decided to take Jeno out for some dinner. He took him to one of his favorite Japanese stores. This was the first time Jeno would get to experience food from the human world and he was slightly thrilled for it.

“They’re better cooks here than in the clouds.” Jaehyun said as he pushed the bowl towards the younger’s direction.

“You’re becoming too human yourself, hyung.” Jeno commented which only garnered a cold silence from the older.

“Jeno.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know cupids can fall for humans too? A rare occurrence, however, still plausible.” He smiled as he watched the younger male give him a confused expression.

“Why is this…important to know?” Jeno asked as he waited for a response.

“You may never know when you will be able to encounter that too. This is more of a warning than just a random fact, Jeno. It’s more difficult not to fall in love with a human…plus, we take heartbreaks worse than humans do.”

“You wouldn’t need to warn me because for sure….

 … I will never fall in love with a human being.”

 The following days, with Jaehyun’s help, Jeno managed to get into the same school as Jaemin did. Jeno insisted that he preferred to just stay at the radio station but Jaehyun insisted otherwise.

As soon as he stepped foot in the school, everybody crowded around him. It was not surprising that the girls who watched the streams religiously would instantly know who he was.

“You must be the popular new kid!” A foreign exchange student who introduced himself as Renjun approached Jeno. Seeing as he was not threatening to maul over him like the other girls, Jeno decided to keep this person close…for protection.

“This school is wild. Back at home, we just studied and that was about it.” Jeno said as he walked down the hallway with Renjun.

“Well you surely got popular here so maybe that’s why.” The smaller boy mentioned as he looked back at the crowd that was following behind them.

“I don’t want popularity. I just wanna do my job in peace.” Jeno sighed softly. He knew Renjun would assume that it was probably the DJ job, but in fact, he could just feel the tingle of wanting to be the cupid that he was bred to be.

Deep in thought, he failed to notice that he was walking straight into a person. You too had no idea that there were a pair of people walking towards your way since you were so focused on the fanfic you were reading about Jaemin and an original character made by one of your friends.

Being clumsy, you felt yourself being pushed back when you were supported by someone by the waist. When you looked behind you, your whole body froze. You were suddenly in Jaemin’s arms, even if his eyes were far off from you.

“Jeno, you should be careful around the hallways. You end up hitting angels off guard.” Jaemin chuckled as he watched Jeno rubbing his rib where your forehead hit.

“What angel? She was the one who wasn’t looking in front of her.” Jeno glanced at you and even if he was right, you did not want him to be.

“As a guy, you should be the one more careful.” You argued with him, almost forgetting the fact that Jaemin was just right behind you and that he even called you an angel.

“This…is exactly why you’re single.” Jeno sighed and walked off with Renjun trailing behind him.

You huffed loudly at his remarks. Who was he to say that and how would he even know that? You were about to follow about this complete stranger to tell him off when you realized that Jaemin was just watching you with a crooked smile on his face.

“T-thank you for catching me.” You quickly bowed towards him, keeping your head low to avoid further embarrassment.

“No biggie. Sorry, on behalf of Jeno. He can be a bit gruff sometimes…” Jaemin smiled before waving off and heading to another direction.

You could feel your heart thumping hard against your chest. Despite your possible new hate for the new boy, he got you the chance to be able to talk to Jaemin. Now, he probably knows you exist.

The week has gone by and Jeno just got more popular. This was not something he actually enjoyed. Most of his time in school is now spent in him hiding from people whenever he could. It just so happened that when you got to the rooftop of the school to practice on your sketches, he literally held a mop in front of you in defense position.

“Why are you following me?”

“Get a life. You are not my type.”  You rolled your eyes at him and went towards your usual spot in the rooftop.

He just watched you with his eyes as he kept a reasonable distance away from you. He just wanted his solemnity and if he had to get it with you at the farthest side, he would take it without any hesitation.

The two of you had a very strange atmosphere. It was a little bit heavy at first but soon, you both forgot one another’s presence and just went by like you were usually accustomed to.

“You know he’s not gonna like you.” Jeno suddenly murmured as he peeked over your shoulder just to see you sketching Jaemin’s side profile.

You were about to flip your sketchbook when you heard his voice but you did not want to throw you art away. When he  gave you a confused expression, you decided just to inch away from him.

“Did nobody teach you that it’s rude just to come up behind people?” Your brows were knitted together and he just shrugged.

“Doesn’t change the fact that he’s not gonna like you.” Jeno said as he took a seat a few spaces away from you.

“How would you know?”

“I know.”

“Did he tell you something?” You suddenly turned your attention to him and hr he just shook his head.

“If he didn’t tell you anything, then how would you surely know?” You frowned at his words and closed your sketchbook, getting ready to leave.

“He’s not the one for you.” He simply replied while looking up at the blue skies that hanged over your head.

You stared at him. You expected a harsh insult from him but what he said was more deep than you expected. “How does a person even know if one person is for and not for them?” You asked back in a calmer boy and he just glanced at you.

“Well, it’s fate as you people claim. Sometimes fate goes against your perception but it gifts you with something better.” He said as his attention went back to thye skies.

“You act like you know so much.” You mumbled before looking up at the sky with him. “How can you be both mean and full of wisdom at the same time?” You said blatantly which caught him a bit off guard.

“I’m not mean.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Being honest isn’t being mean.”

“Sometimes, you need to know when you have to hold your tongue and not speak or else you would end up hurting someone.” You told him as you hugged your sketchbook close to your chest.

“I’m not hurting anyone. In fact, I am saving you the time by telling you not to pursue Jaemin when he isn’t destined for you.”

“What are you? Some sort of cupid to dictate how my love life ends up like?” You snickered at him.

“You can say that.” A small smirk tugged on the corner of his lips as he heard your remark.

In your opinion, Jeno could be obnoxious sometimes but he can also be quite attractive. No wonder why he has such a lot of girls fawning over him. Yet, he never seemed to enjoy the attention.

“Are you..gay?” You suddenly asked which made him raise a brow at you.

“If you were hoping for a yes then I am sorry to break it to you, but I am not.”

“Then why do you keep rejecting the girls that keep asking you out? Are none of them the one destined for you?” You asked with the same tone he used on you earlier.

“I’m just not interested.”

“How are you not interested but work at a station for love agendas?” You found the idea quite funny but Jeno was indifferent.

“It wasn’t my choice.”

“Was it destiny’s choice?” You playfully said and he just shook his head but you can tell that that made him laugh a bit.

“You’re not so bad, y/n. Apart from you flunking math…” He teased and you could have sworn, this was the only time he had been kind to you.

“Hey! You’re flunking with me too!” You pointed out the truth about you and Jeno being the lowest in class consecutively.

“I don’t need math in my life.” Jeno commented which you actually agreed to.

“Anyway, you’re not so bad too.” You added before the bell rang to signal that it was time to get back to class.  “By the way, today is club sign ups. You might want to join one.”

“Which one are you joining?”

“Cooking as always.” You said before he nodded. “See you around, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

Apart from that one incident, you did not have any other chances to get to talk to him. Maybe once was enough, you wondered. You were together in all classes and since you had different surnames, he was seated somewhere far from you. You never got to group up in projects as well since he always teamed up with Renjun and another foreign exchange student named Lucas.

“You keep on looking towards Jeno.” Your friend, Haechan, pointed out as he whispered.

“I do not.” You glared at him before returning to your joined project with him.

“We can make arrangements, you know.” Haechan then approached Renjun and told him something and you can see Jeno slowly approaching you.

“Hey.” He waved as he took Haechan’s spot right besides you.

“What are you doing?”

“Haechan suddenly said Renjun owed him something hence why they’re partners now and I guess, we’re partners now.”

He glanced down at the paper in front of you and nodded. He then opened his book again to go through all the important notes that he has highlighted.

You felt awkward at first. Jeno was not quite the person who did small talk as a partner. What mattered to him was getting the work done before the bell rang and it was not surprising that you had ten minutes to spare with the speed of your work.

Your eyes then found their way to a certain Na Jaemin. You still could not help but sigh dreamily at the sight of him. He was paired up with one of his closest female friends and they seem to have been enjoying their conversation and you could not but feel jealous at it. You knew you had the slightest chance to end up with him but you still hoped regardless.

“Don’t worry. She isn’t meant for him either.” Jeno said as he noticed you, his eyes watching you curiously. “You already know that you two aren’t destined. Why do you keep on fantasizing about him?”

“Look.” You shot him a sharp glare. “You don’t know that yet and I can like whoever I like. You cannot just dictate for someone to stop their feelings towards a person.”

“Fine. Call the station then. Find out for yourself so you can get your feelings sort out.” Jeno crossed his arms and looked at you. You knew he was posing a challenge and you were very much accepting to that. You were not going to let him win this.

On the next broadcast, you decided to take Jeno’s advice. You queued with numerous viewers just so you can get a chance to be chosen for a call. Luckily enough, Jeno just happened to draw your number.

“Hi…I just wanted to ask about something a certain person told me.” Jeno could easily recognize your voice but decided that Jaemin should take this call.

“Oh sure. What is It about?” Jaemin said with his usual warm voice.

You could feel your voice hitch but decided not to let it show. “Well, someone told me that I was not meant for this guy I like. That even if I like them a lot, that I shouldn’t try because there’s someone else out there better for me.” You began speaking.

You could see a small smile tug on the corner of Jeno’s lips.You were about to snicker but kept in mind that Jaemin was just on the other line.  “Do you think he’s right?”

“Well from the sounds of it, I think he likes you. The guy who said that I mean.” Jaemin laughed and you could see the distort on his face.

“What-“ Even Jeno seemed surprised to the viewers who were watching.

“Well, what do you think, Jeno?”

“I think he’s just being honest to her. Isn’t that a good thing?” Jeno leaned back against his chair as he listed to Jaemin.

“Well, that could be, or he could selfishly want her attention on him too. There are two sides to a coin.” Jaemin gave him a cheeky grin and  the comments streamed by the chat fast adoring his answer.

For the first time, Jeno did not know how to respond to it. He always had one view of how he acted and to bring such thinking that humans tend to be that selfish took him by surprise.   The show ended with him still pondering about Jaemin’s perspective and also how you could have possibly reacted.

It did not once cross your mind that Jeno could have liked you since he always seemed to just be a normal classmate to you. You could not deny that what Jaemin said stirred a little interest in you. What kind of possibility would it be to have Jeno like you?

The following day was calmer for Jeno. After having to hear his response, most of Jeno’s fangirls started fawning over Jaemin instead. Not that Jaemin minded or anything. Jeno was finally able to go around the school without having any intentions on actually just hiding away.

He sat under the shade of an old tree as he closed his eyes to take a short nap. It was until he heard your voice from the distance talking to the few friends you had. He could see how you were in the middle of the trio which he assumed meant that you were the bridge of the friendship. You laughed heartily with them and he could compare your aura to that of the sun. Yet, why would you want to lose all that for someone who would just bring in darkness for you? Maybe that was why he kept on telling you that Jaemin just isn’t the one for you.

“Jeno’s watching you.” One of your friends mentioned.

You turned your head towards the direction they were looking at and they were right about him having his eyes on you. You turned away from them and took a deep breathe.

“Do you think Jaemin is right…?”

“Possibly but I thought Jeno wasn’t into girls, that’s why he rarely asked anyone out…or more like he never.” Your other friend nodded.

“Well he said he wasn’t gay either.” You mentioned at the memory of your past conversation. “Maybe it just so happened that Jaemin didn’t know his co-host said it. He would have probably had a different opinion if he did.” Your friends agreed with one another and just nodded your head.

Jeno surely was mysterious. No action from him can be consistent apart from how blunt he was when it came to people’s emotion. Sometimes, you even doubt if he was human as well. However, you did know for a fact that curiosity kills the cat. If you were too curious about him, that would probably cause problems to arise.

Days would pass and you would line up the station regularly to take part in the queuing, That one chance you got to talk to Jaemin was enough to fuel you to try and get to talk to him again. You and Jeno would avoid one another casually but with the twist of fate, you were now always paired up together by your teachers.

“You two make such a great pair.” The teachers would comment as your work would always earn the highest grades in class. This brought teasing from your classmates saying that you two should probably date.

This would actually cause you to get a little flustered. Not only did you dislike it being with Jeno, but the fact that Jaemin was one of the many who teased you both just panged your heart.

Jeno was also confused why you two were being teased to one another. He never showed any common signs human do when they develop interest. He was starting to feel that he knew less of what he actually already knew about.  He knew that the best way he could do so is by asking someone but he also got the hint that it would be too weird to just randomly ask a person how they developed feelings.

He glanced at you as you continued jotting down notes for your pair work. Maybe he could trade information for an offer you could not reject. So he decided to ask you when you two conveniently found one another at the rooftop of the school.

“I wanna know more about how people think regarding love. This is for our station and I thought you could help.” He began as you leaned against the steel barricades of the roof.

“Why would I do that…? That would be exceptionally weird.” You said as you thought about how people would stir things up again once they see you together.

“I’d let you come to the station to watch us live.” He said blankly which made your eyes instantly light up

“Really? Before the show starts and when it starts?” You clasped your fingers together and jerked forward to look up at him.

“Yeah, sure. Only on Fridays though…” He said and you quickly nodded your head.

You knew that you had to meet him every day of the week and only got to see Jaemin once but it was a good deal for your end.

Every day, Jeno and you would head to the library to discuss and then you would take him out to the small shops in the street so he can observe the topics you would have taught him. He seems to have been taking it seriously because he was jotting down notes for each lesson. You got to know him as well and you with him. You found that through Jeno’s cold exterior, he had a unique kindness to him. He always offered for you to go first and if he always had let you choose what snacks to buy when you had your study lessons.

Plus, he kept his word and brought you to the studio every Friday. You would watch him get in the booth with Jaemin and them proceed with the show. You sat next to Jaehyun who was just observing you.

“Are you good friends with Jeno, dear?”

“Oh…I guess…I give him lessons after school.” You gave him a shy smile before looking back at the two.

“I see.” Jaehyun knew that Jeno was the brightest of his batch so why would he ask for lessons from someone when he is fully capable of learning on his own. “Are you perhaps interested in him..?”

“Oh no…”You shook your head and laughed softly. “I can’t be. I am more interested in the other host.” You mumbled as you glanced at Jaemin but his eyes were on Jeno which made your eyes travel towards him too.

Jeno caught glimpse of you looking at him but he quickly looked back to Jaemin and noded to whatever he had been discussing about. Jeno has gotten more comfortable now with the show. Was it because of your help? You wanted to take credit for that but you were just not completely sure if you should.

“He seems to have gotten more cheerful. I might have to thank you for that.” Jaehyun spoke as if he had been reading through your mind.

“What do you mean…?”  

“You can say that Jeno isn’t that friendly…or wasn’t. In his old school, he always topped everything but nobody wanted to be friends with an overachiever. Hence why he turned away from…everyone. So seeing how he has a friend like you, maybe that’s what made him break through his cold self as well.”

As you listened, you took a glance at Jeno. That explained why he was so mean before. You did notice that he was nice once people got close enough to him. You smiled at that thought that he finally had friends around him.

“Please take care of him, okay?”

“O-okay..” You did not understand the reason for the talk so you just responded in the way you could best muster up.

The following days, you two just proceeded with the usual schedule. You two had voluntarily paired up now for activities being the two most academically intelligent students, that is. Some people would bring up questions If you two were dating and you would just continuously reject it.

You would catch Jeno watching you sometimes but he then looks off to somewhere else. You couldn’t deny that Jeno was indeed attractive, you wouldn’t even question anyone who would like him since he does have a good personality after all.

However, a part of you warned you not to get any attachments from him. Considering that the main reason you two even hanged out was because of Jaemin. You had hoped that this could bring you two closer even if that meant having Jeno as the bridge.

But it did feel bad considering that Jeno has already reached the close friend status with you.

You were in Jeno’s flat. He apparently lived alone but was being funded by his uncle. He was sprawled all over the carpet while you were on the couch. The two of you were writing a paper about the psychology of a person and it was due on the day to follow. You would glance at him as his eyes remained stuck on the pages of the book he borrow at the library.

He would look at you whenever he felt your eyes on him and would ask if you wanted something. He would instantly get some snacks from the kitchen without waiting for you to respond. You were getting a bit confused on what you were feeling towards the said boy. He was in general, a mystery.

Jeno could not deny the fact that it was as confusing as it was for you with him. He was wondering why he was so comfortable even with your presence. Somehow, even more comfortable when he was with Renjun. There were more confusing moments for him when he would feel an increase in the pace of his heartbeats whenever you would accidentally fall asleep against his shoulder. He would  reconsider going to school the next day, thinking he caught some disease and might worsen it if he overexerted himself, but it was never the case.

When he did try to confide about this with Renjun, he would just say that maybe Jeno was developing feelings for you which he found quite impossible. Cupids are not meant to develop feelings for humans or else, there will be a designated punishment for them.

He recalled that one conversation he had with Jaehyun where he asked why he was feeling these strange things whenever he was with you and Jaehyun would just give him a knowing smile. His answer was simple and that had let Jeno hinder any other humanly feelings to reside in him.

If you fall in love with a human, you’ll be punished by being revoked the title of being a cupid.

He glanced back at you. Pondering of the chances that he may be developing feelings for you. Was he willing to give up everything he really wanted? He knew that he wasn’t. Just the same as you would for Jaemin.

One Thursday evening, you were supposed to have a study session with Jeno but he said that he had to pick something up from the studio first. To save time, you had insisted to just go along with him. As you got into the studio, it was different from usual. It was normally well lit and the cold air from the airconditioning system would be blasting. However, since today had no particular schedules, it was empty.

As you two went inside the studio, you came across a sight you had never expected nor wanted to see. Jaemin had his hands cupped on one of the staff’s cheeks and was pressing gentle kisses on her lips. You could feel your head getting heavy from the sight. It was painful but not to the extent that you had imagined it, Jeno was also in shock by it. He knew Jaemin was dating someone but never thought that he’d get to see it. He glanced at you, worried at how your expression had seem to darken. What was he supposed to do..?

Before Jaemin could notice you both, Jeno had already pulled you into an embrace, his head tilting back and his own lips being pressed against your own. Your eyes widened in surprise but he had covered you enough so that when Jaemin turned to your general view, he can only see Jeno kissing you.

You felt your heartbeat rise at the surreal feeling of his lips on your own. It momentarily made you forget about what you had just seen. The kiss lasted only for a few seconds before Jeno pulled away and Jaemin went inside to greet you both.

“Hey, lovebirds. Finally started dating for real, huh?” Jaemin teased as he had his hands clasped on that of his significant other.

“Yeah.” Jeno replied quietly as he tried to avoid looking at you.

“Don’t seem so tensed. I’ll keep it a secret.” Jaemin winked before waving off and leaving with his partner.

Now, it was the moment of truth. Jeno had to turn back to look at you, not sure how you would react. He also wondered why he did it. He knew that his original intention was just to protect you from getting seen hurt by Jaemin but a part of him said that he did it for a different reason. As he turned to look at you, he was surprised by the look you had on your face.

It wasn’t the same pained expression from earlier but confusion was written all over it. He knew he had to somehow explain the reason for why he did it but he couldn’t bring the words to do so. He just looked away and you two kept quiet until you had left the studio and had your study session canceled. He still volunteered to take you home but the walk all the way to your house was just very uneasy. He did not necessarily said goodbye and neither did you. You both probably needed to be alone with your thoughts for now.

The following days in school, a lot of your classmates noticed how you two would barely talk to one another. Jeno would not even spare you a glance. His attention always seemed to have been glued to whatever he was watching outside the window. You wanted to ask him if that kiss meant something or was it just to hide you away from Jaemin that day. Deep inside, you were actually scared of the answer.

Jeno was not having the best time either. With what had concided and his most recent talk with Jaehyun, he knew that he had developed feelings for you. Scared of it would be the best description. He knew how much he wanted to just feel your presence again next to him but he still did not want to lose his title as a cupid. Diving deeper into the punishment, Jaehyun had explained that his wings will get cut off as well. The same way his were when he fell in love with a human. The only way he got to be a cupid again was to continuously serve their world as a teacher until his passing.

Would Jeno be willing to sacrifice that much for you?

Why would he do that when he was not sure of how you felt for him?

The following days remained the same and you both wanted to deny the fact that you missed one another. The viewers seem to have noticed how Jeno seemed very distracted as well. Jaemin would take small chances to ask him what was happening during breaks but Jeno preferred not to talk about it, He kept it all to himself the same way you did.

Days and days passed and still nothing. The school had announced that it will be holding a dance and that partners were not required but encouraged. Jaehyun was one of the sponsors for the event because he claimed that it was something he could do for his two DJs as a token of gratitude.

Jeno would stay at the rooftop to hide away from the female population who wanted him to take them out when he really just wanted one person to go with him. As if right on cue, you entered the rooftop with your books, not wanting to be a part of the commotion with people asking others to be their partners. When you both laid eyes on one another, a part of you wanted to run away but another part of you wanted to run to him and just hug him. You remained stuck in place as if no one wanted to end the moment despite being just what it was. A few distances away from one another, nothing more, nothing less.

It was consuming Jeno more than it probably did for you. He was not human after all and all these emotions were more raw for him than it was for you. As if on instinct, he stood up and went towards you. Cheeks held against his big warm hands, he leaned in to seal your lips with his. You lost grasps of your books as your hands found themselves against his wrists. You wanted this as well but never wanted to admit it.

Jeno knew. He finally knew what he was willing to give up. Everything he had learned from his world, everything he used to aspire to be, those were all nothing to him if you were not a part of his world. He would give up being a cupid if it meant being with you.

During the dance, it was a pleasant surprise for everyone to see you two come in together hand in hand after the long days you two ignored one another. Jaemin lifted his glass towards both of you, happy to see that everything worked out after all. You still did not know Jeno  is a cupid, or was one. He had to face his punishment for falling in love with you and that was to be stuck in the human world until a specific time. He would then be given a chance to appeal to the court of cupids to regain his status. Yet, he had confirmed to them that he would prefer to stay as what he is now. A human.

Jaehyun watched as you both danced under the intricate designs of dangling heart streamers. He smiled as he watched Jeno with his eyes smiling with whatever you just had told him before he twirled you. “You were never meant to be a cupid, Jeno. You were meant to be matched to your soulmate.” Jaehyun sighed softly before leaving the scene.

[killmebutneverinsultme2]

Rules for mobile (Pinned Post)

The Code

Success. I’ve sufficiently pestered the wench to make me a blog, much to the cost of a certain behorned mischief god whose presence I must share. Follow the rules below, and there’ll be smooth sailin’, savvy?

This be an exceptionally selective blog. I was me mun’s first ever muse yonks back and I’ve pestered her into writing me again, BUT, she’s horribly pressed for time. Partners will likely be very few, else ones doubling up with Loki’s. Anyone is welcome to approach and enquire, but she and I will be leaning toward those either from me own universe or crossovers with which she’s highly familiar and characters in whom she’s especially interested. Ye have been warned.

Replies are like to be slow, up to a few weeks at most.

Partners must be 18+. Various themes of an adult nature may be found here. Sexual things will be tagged ‘#filthy pirate’ with whatever level/variety of sin I deem them. More details below.

Behave. There shall be no rudeness, no passive aggression, no hate, no censorship or generally being a twit. Do I make meself clear?

The Code - Extended (below the cut)

Hi, guys. I’m Pirate (oddly known as this long before I made Jack a tumblr). Here are my more detailed rules and guidelines for writing with me on this blog, though the absolute basics are at the top as, honestly, it’s never easy to remember everyone’s requirements.

Jack is a sideblog. If you’re being followed by a benevolentgodloki that means I’m following you back. I don’t need us to be mutuals (both following each other) for us to write together, but there is a greater chance of us having a partnership if we’re letting each other know we’re interested.

How I Roll

I note myself as ‘highly selective’. This isn’t to be an elitist bugger, it’s because we all only have a limited amount of time we can put in. I want to write what I enjoy with people I enjoy. I am married with two attention-seeking cats, two jobs, a slow-brewing intended writing career and a video game addiction.

Asks/Memes - I will usually answer these no matter who they are from but I may or may not turn them into a thread I intend to keep. Some memes are very much designed to be something that continues so context can be key. If you would like to know in advance whether I intend to answer and/or keep something, please do pop me a message and I will be kind and honest.

My Threads - While Jack’s blog is still exciting and new, I’m being a bit all over the place with who and what I reply to depending on which way Jack’s.. compass.. is pointing. I do have a rolling turn order that I adhere to (to the point that I can genuinely tell you who is next at any given moment) but it’s all piled in with Loki’s threads, meaning I can take a few weeks to get round everything. Every partner gets one of their threads answered within that ‘round’ and then I go round again. However, when I’m really into something/finding something easy to pop back, I treat myself to spamming certain threads or partners at my whim. I use rpthreadtracker.com to maintain what I have. 

I will remind partners of threads that have not been replied to for more than three months. If I do not do this, I have either forgotten/lost it myself, I’m not too fussed about keeping it at that stage, or you were absent for a long period of time. 

My Style - I will write in both past or present tense depending on partner preference. My default is past but I like either. Please kick me if I screw up and write the wrong one. I prefer using regular size font but I will make mine small on replies to people who use the smaller so that it looks neat. I will often match partners’ lengths and some formatting details e.g. bolding dialogue, but I struggle with doing novella-length posts for reasons below.

I have a bugbear to admit about role-play. What we call splicing. A good half of my partners write this way so I’m not about to tell everyone to stop but if you’re someone who does this, you will occasionally run into some frustrations when writing with me. ‘Splicing’ is when you retrospectively write dialogue or actions as having previously happened during your partner’s last post. These things are fine when they’re passive i.e. your character muttered them, thought them or you were writing what your character was doing at the time because that’s pretty much essential. The trouble comes usually when my characters talk a lot/ask rhetorical questions and partners choose to answer every single one despite the fact my character carried on talking. I know it’s an ass that I have talkative muses and you really want to respond to every point/get a word in, but putting words and actions into the past effectively godmods my muse into accepting they happened. If you feel your muse would have full-on interjected midway through their ramble, please ask me to edit my post/stop it at that point. Otherwise if you do prefer to splice, my muse will only respond to whatever it is your character did or said last in their post. This is one of the reasons I can’t write novella, because often there is only so much you can write before you’re stepping into the territory of changing what went before and not allowing your partner to do anything about it.

TL;DR don’t ever worry about your post being too short for me. If it’s one sentence long but it’s because something fast-paced is happening, I won’t be miffed.

Shipping! - no not that kind of ship, Jack. I love shipping. Ships all around. Let’s face it, romance can be one of the most exciting reasons we bother writing. I am open to a lot of ships for Jack, practically all of them. Yes, even that one. I will do downright nasty, toxic, horrible stuff, savvy? It’s fiction and Jack is a great indulgence for bad things happening to him as much as good. That said, of course don’t force something on him without prior agreement between us. Well, I mean, your muse can try and accost him and see what he does, just don’t expect him to definitely reciprocate. Jack and I are bi/pansexual. We’re open to everything. I will admit a heavy lean toward m/m but, that said, Jack is extremely fond of the ladies, more so than Loki. I am very into Sparrington especially.

Not Safe For Ye Olde Work

Sliding down from the above topic, I enjoy the occasional smutting. It is not a requirement from my partners. In fact, I’m warming very much to fading to black depending on the context/mood/if things feel a bit repetitive. I do feel a touch more comfortable with partners who don’t need that boundary but as I’ve recently figured ‘if it needs a cut, then it’s smut’ I know when to skip on.

Saucy material will go under cuts/Read More’s and be tagged as mentioned above with ‘filthy pirate’. Additional tags will be based on the citrus scale: ‘lime’ for general grabbing, ‘lemon’ for full on sexual content and ‘grapefruit’ if things get extra kinky. I will tag things such as ‘rape tw’ or ‘noncon tw’ or ‘dubcon tw’ where necessary. Please blacklist any or all of these at your leisure, or search them if you fancy :U I do NOT tag these as ‘ns.fw’ because tumblr just completely hides them from being searchable which is useless for my partners.

OC’s - Due to my time constraints I am extremely picky when it comes to OC’s. This is a good fandom for well-thought-out muses and I know firsthand how hard it is to make headway as an OC in the RP world. However, I also understand that for people like me, I want to dip in on this site to mostly play with the characters and worlds I’m really absorbed in and ship my weaselly black guts out. Some people have more time than others to really give your OCs the time and love they deserve. Unless I’ve played with you a long time and I really like the cut of your and your muse’s jib, it’s very unlikely I’ll bite. Apologies! The same goes for crossover muses from fandoms I’m unfamiliar with, but I will let you know if that’s the case.

Limits

Threads - I don’t have a strict limit on how many to have per person but please bear in mind that the more of these you have with me the longer it will take me to get to a particular one (unless I’m spamming it back and forth). This is more a mun/muse context how many I accept.

Exclusives/mains - I don’t do these although I may consider having a maximum of 3 or 4 of one muse depending on activity levels and to ensure plots don’t get mixed up or attention feel unfairly balanced.

Triggers/squicks - I don’t like body horror e.g. graphic detail of squishy bits having bad things happen to them. I’m writing a pirate so there’s absolutely allowed to be elements of torture/violence, just don’t stab him in the eye or chop bits off him. One torture-related thing sends me into a complete freakout which I’ll discuss with partners if we’re doing a thread of that ilk as needed. Kink-wise I’m not into mpreg, A/B/O or infantilism or toilet things. Just ask me/Jack if you’re after something XD

Who I Am/What I Need From You

Being yourself is the most important thing and I promise I am not a scary person (usually). We’re only human and it’s natural that we’ll get along better with some rather than others. This is more to give you a gist of the sort of person I am and who I gel with best.

So I’m a shy hermit at the best of times. I’m trying to be better at engaging and enthusing with partners over our threads because I realise more than ever this does keep things alive and make for a more enjoyable experience. I’m not always great at it. I work best with people who are patient and don’t worry too much on what I think of them and their writing, with people who are happy to keep threads going for the longhaul rather than keep dropping everything before I’ve had the time to get to the next post, and most especially people who accept that fiction =/= reality. I do need a certain level of quality, which doesn’t always mean perfect grammar, but it must be coherent, fun and creative. I like a relaxed approach, sharing mutual enjoyment in silly fantasy world sandboxes as escapism from (and exploration of) this complicated world we live in.

If you managed to read all of this, have a drink (even if it’s water). You’re a diamond. 

Pirate xxx

[idk-my-aesthetic]

isle kingdom au

so i’ve had this idea for an AU for a little while, but i don’t wanna actually write anything for it until i’m done w/ my current descendants wips, but i also wanna talk about it lol so ig im making a post? please send me asks about it i wanna talk about it.... anyway

**tw for child abuse and semi-graphic descriptions of violence.

basically the premise of the au is that even though he tried to get it passed at first, ben never went through with pulling the vks off the isle. he kept meaning too, but it just kept being pushed to the back of his list of priorities bc he was so busy w/ being king and never happened 

so bc of this, the core 4 stayed on the isle and never got off it. if you’ve read the stuff in my keep them close series u probably have a better idea of my hc of the isle, but the basics of it are that 1) most of the parents are really bad and abusive + the conditions are disgusting 2) none of the kids are really evil and 3) the vks are all kinda frenimes/rivals and will work together to keep eachother alive even if they act like they hate eachother or will even hurt eachother

so, in the ‘canon’ timeline before going to auradon the core 4 are a gang and slowly gaining power. they’re already the top of the vk gangs and are like gaining on some of the adult ones.

bc they never go to auradon, they just kinda keep doing what they already are and gain more and more power. but, as they gain power their parents start becoming afraid of them and acting like more abusive in attempts to keep the core 4 under their control 

ok bare w/ me for this next bit bc it’s gonna sound real ooc for like a sec then make sense

so, as they’re gaining power and their parents are haveing more and more trouble controlling them their parents are becoming more and more violent.

im not sure on the order yet, but basically cruella, jafar, eq, and malifacent all do something like really really bad to their respective kid, so one of the other core 4 kills them bc like. yeah. 

i have some vauge ideas of what each of them could have done and i don’t really know if i want to say them or even use them tbh bc they’re like.... bad, like real bad. which they kinda have to be, you know? bc like.... none of the core 4 would turn to killing if they didn’t have a real good reason, and their parents continuing the abuse that they always have woulden’t be enough, so the parents would have to do something really really bad for one of the others to justify killing them 

its important to mention that none of them kill their own parent. it’s always one of the other 4, im not sure who kills who just yet, but none of them kill their own parent. They’re saved from their parents by each other and they never really have any confrontation with their parents (which will change l8r 👀👀, let me explain)

Even tho they didn’t kill their own parents, everyone kinda assumed they did in order to take their places/gain power. A handful of their friends know the real story, but it’s mostly kept under wraps and it’s like general “knowledge” that they killed their parents for power. They’re not really hiding it or anything, I mean they did still each kill one of the 4 most powerful villains so it’s not like anyone is gonna be less afraid if they knew the truth. ppl just make assumptions and never really question them and they just let ppl think what they do

So bc their parents are dead and they let everyone assume they killed their own parent they very easily climb up the ranks and end up in charge of the isle bc atp they’re seen as the most ruthless/evil/powerful

So now that they’re in charge of the isle they start like..... actually making it a livable place. Ofc at first they try to make a version of Carlos’s machine to break the barrier, but they can’t get it to work so he just modifys it to steal magic from the barrair for them to use. (Another idea stolen from my keep them close series but like I like the idea lol)

And when I say they make it a livable place I mean they start doing stuff like building water purifiers, making like safe houses, establishing some kind of working economy, taking control of the barge drop offs and how everything is distributed, fixing broken electricity, etc etc

A lot of what they do is based off of Carlos’s machines and designs, which like obvi other ppl are helping him gather materials and for and build, since he has power bc he’s like one of the ppl in charge. And he like teaches other ppl how to do what he does and fix anything that goes wrong

Evie kinda puts herself in charge of setting up like medical centers + homes for kids and stuff. Also some kinda way to grow food. B4 they’re in charge nothing can really grow but they use the magic they steal from the barrier to make stuff grow. And evie can use it to make like lots of healing items and such

Jay ends up mostly in charge of like collecting and distribution of their recourses. At first like the barge is kinda a hugeeee problem to deal with bc ppl are fighting over the like moldy food and destroyed clothes and stuff. But eventually they get it organized and have stuff sent to the respective place it should, like clothes and scrap fabric are sent to a place that repairs and sells them, parts and electronics are sent to Carlos or his helpers, etc

Other minor vks like Celia, dizzy, the sea three, Diego, etc are all in this two but this is already really long so just know they’re like helping and like pretty high ranking/highly regarded. Send me an ask with questions please

Mal is kinda regarded as the ultimate leader/queen of the isle ig even though the other 3 have basically the same amount of power. Mostly bc her job ends up being keeping the adults who dislike them inline and keeping their power as heads of the isle

Most ppl are just kinda chill w/ them being in charge, especially a lot of the ppl who were banished for minor crimes. A few of the adult villains try to fight them and end up dead lol, and anyone caught doing especially bad things, like r*pe, hurting someone they shouldn’t have, being a child abuser, etc will end up killed by mal or one of the others. They don’t kill u for like every crime obviously only the like inexcusable ones. Stuff like stealing or mental illness or w/e they basically just help you work through

They’re aren’t any like real laws ig but they deal with issues as they go and give harsh punishments if needed. It serves to keep themselves seen as strong/evil/powerful despite all the good they do and helps keep others too afraid to challenge them. Like frollo isn’t going to challenge them if Ursula tried the same thing and got killed. (The fact that she abused uma and her siblings obviously had nothing to do with that,,,,,,,,,,,)

So yeah! They basically turned the isle into a inhabitable place in the years that they spent as its leaders, and it functions as its own kinda kingdom despite its harsh and confusing laws/rules

But we ain’t done yet, lol

Basically everything I’ve just explained is.... mostly backstory? Kinda? It’s the type of thing where you slowly find out about all this stuff while they actual story goes on, but I figured it’d be less confusing to explain it first :3

So the Actual story starts a few years after when Ben originally was supposed to take the vks off the isle. He, all the other princess/princes he want to school with, the core 4, the sea 3, etc are all in their mid to early 20s.

Auradon has basically no clue what’s the deal w/ the isle. They’re only interaction w/ them is through the like goblins that bring over the trash barges, but those guys are chill and basically don’t tell the aks anything lol.

So Ben is ruling his kingdom, and the core 4 are ruling their own, both sides are doing pretty well and ignoring each other, but then! All of a sudden there’s these sudden deaths/fires/some kinda terrorist attack on the outskirts of the kingdom.

I haven’t thought through this part too much, but basically he knows that they’re is some kinda threat, but he doesn’t know excatly what it is. All he does know is that the villain that is attacking is demanding to speak to the children of malifecent, jafar, cruella devil, and the evil queen.

He basically rounds up the heroes of those respective stories bc they’re all being threatened in some way or another. The mystery villain continues to do more damage and seems basically impossible to beat, and has given them a time limit b4 they’ll go and start destroying more

They discuss their options and decide their best plan is to go to the isle and convince them core 4 to help, bringing along the heroes and some of the main aks w/ them

Obviously it doesn’t go well bc they show up and mal basically has them arrested lmao

Again I have more in-depth ideas for this part but this post is already wayyyy to long so I’m trying to hurry and finish up

The talk, vks meet their respective heroes, everything is from ak/hero POV so as they explore the isle and talk to the core 4 and other vks they slowly find out about all ^^^ that stuff up there

The core 4 are eventually agree, and they go to face the villains only to find out its their parents who have been resurrected!!!! Fuck!!!!

Idk how or why just yet lmao but I will soon

Parents are obvi pissed, core 4 face their own parents and finally get like some kinda closer or smthn idk I feel like y’all get the gist

in the end auradon agknolages the isle as its own kingdom and the core 4 as its leaders and open trade/remove the barrier so the isle can continue to grow bc it’s been struggling due to lack of recourses

And that’s like the basic outline of my au! I wanna write it eventually but tbh I’m expecting eventually to be like 3 years from now bc of how much other stuff I have so for rn I’m just gonna blog about it. Obviously there’s a lot of other stuff/plots/emotional arcs etc I didn’t talk about bc like This Post Is So Long I’m So Sorry, So please please please send me asks/questions/comments/even your own ideas!!! Please. Everything about this will be tagged with “isle kingdom au” :3

[ethercals]

[ MUSE 80 ] ●● is that BEN BARNES? no, that’s just JACKSON ‘JAX’ SINCLAIR, the 42 year old CISMALE who is a ENTREPRENEUR. some say they’re UNDIGNIFIED AND HARSH, but their family and friends will swear they’re LOYAL AND BRILLIANT. when i think of them, i think of at loaded guns under desk drawers, empty bottles of bourbon, a snarling grin curving his mouth. i wonder if HIS family knows that HE’S A CRIME BOSS . ●● 

wbk i’m a weak bitch, but i’ve lowkey had an idea for this muse for like seven months, so here we go!

jackson sinclair was born lucky. the eldest son of leopold and ginebra sinclair, he had a silver spoon in his mouth from the moment that he was born.

his entire life, it was clear that the sinclair name was only known for one thing: wealth. his father owned a chain of hotels, inherited from his grandfather, and his mother have her fingers in the oil business. both their families separately had more money than they knew what to do with with, and together? they were practically gods.

that’s how jax always thought of them, anyway. he idolises his parents, thought that they could do no wrong and lived their best possible lives. parties every weekend, summers in europe, never wanting for nothing because whatever they wanted, they got.

they spoiled him rotten, too. whatever he wanted, he got without argument. most of the time, anyway. they may have given him what he wanted, but if he ever acted out against their rules, he lost it in a flash. cars would be taken away and his accounts frozen if he shamed their name, his father expecting much of him as the eldest.

he got a lot sneakier after learning that lesson the hard way, and before long, he was a mastermind at avoiding their suspicions of what he was doing. school bored him, the man far too intelligent for his own good, and there were many days where he ditched to go drinking with his friends, making up for it with his grades and that he was paying the office to mark him as present when he wasn’t.

like i said, too smart and rich for his own good smh.

he was kind of rough and tough too. kinda had guzman vibes from elite? easy to piss off, even easier to get a fight out of. he was 100% that ass that had his friends hold a guy down while he beat them up.

when he graduated high school, he went to MIT to study physics and chemical engineering.

it was also around that time that jax learned about the real family business. not only had his father been grooming him to take over command of the hotel business, but of his side business. turned out mr leopold the first had control of the crime ring in all of massachusetts. he profited from everything, had control of the police as well as the drug trade. 

it was a lot for jax to take in and accept, but his father had always had a way of wording things to make anything sound like it made sense. he talked jax into it, little by little. he already knew how to use a gun, and had been boxing since he was a kid, and he already had the smarts and potential to be involved in the running of that business.

even more than that, his past relationship with ariana became more intense.

he really fell in love with her, and when they found out they were having lena, that only solidified things for jax, even if he was terrified.

three kids later, jax really was feeling like he was on top of the world. he had his kids, his wife, was doing well in his transition towards taking over the family businesses. the only kink came up when ari was getting invested over her father, and everything went to shit.

when she left, he was in denial for a hot minute. he thought that she was just in hiding to escape the backlash of her father getting arrested. then a week past and no matter who he sent and what he tried, she hadn’t come home and he had no information.

he could only assume the worst. that she had been kidnapped, or killed, or worst of all, that she had simply left.

with a newborn to look after and two young kids, jax had a really hard time readjusting to what his life had become without his wife. over the years he tried his best, but he definitely had his shortcomings as a father and made mistakes in those early days.

still, he was trying. he did his best as a father, gave them freedom and all they could want, but still put his foot down when need be. 

he lost his father a few years after ariana left, and he officially took over the hotel chain, as well as his underground business. he ended up buying out a chain of restaurants and taking over them to in order to expand his empire, as well as sitting on the board of his mother’s business.

has basically spent the last twenty years working his ass off. he wanted all of his business to thrive, and he completely chased the power that came with it all. he wanted everyone to know his name, or the persona he created for himself when it came to his less than legal activities. he wanted to see his kids through school, raise them the only way he knew how.

has been such a womanizer over the years at first bc he couldn’t commit to another woman again ( esp bc he was p sure they were still married ) and then just because it had become a habit.

he’s at a point in his life now that he thought he could just relax, and become more of a man of leisure. work is running smoothly enough for him, and he has been spending more and more time lately out on the yacht, attending dinner parties and underground fight clubs.

then ariana came back into his life, and found out that he’s gonna be a grandpa, and there’s the whole teddy being pregnant. needless to say he is stressed af rn and is 10/10 done with life tbh.

he just wants to go race cars and get his new drug going through the city but alas, billionaire boys club has to be hard sometimes.

personality wise, he’s kind of blunt. always looks kinda tough, stone faced and mad, and in some ways he is. he’s cocky af too, arrogant, and a spoiled shit. has a mad soft spot for his family though, and will literally kill to protect them. 

always found in designer clothing, usually tailored suits or all black with leather jackets.

has a mad car collection, watch collection. basically he collects everything expensive bc lord knows the man can afford it. 

i’ve rambled enough already, but yah! that’s the gist of my mans. hit that big old heart button if you want to plot!

[hamliet]

Mao Dao Zu Shi’s Monster

Call it war, call it threat You can bet they all will follow For in times like this, they'll do just as I say

We don’t like what we don’t understand; in fact it scares us...

“Mob Song,” Beauty and the Beast

I finally finished watching Mao Dao Zu Shi, and I read as much as is translated right now and know the gist of what happens but someone please lend me those last three chapters sob sob sob. This meta will have spoilers from the novel, apologies. I thought about making two versions but that seemed a bit too much, and the entire story is so perfectly structured thematically that I just had to talk about all of it. As a warning, this meta will discuss the canon-depicted homophobia a bit. And sorry but I ramble a bit here :(

In my review of the anime, I said this:

For a series that starts off with our heroes fighting ghouls and quickly includes battles with zombies, tortoise dinosaurs, etc., it soon becomes apparent that the real monsters the characters are fighting aren’t the dead nor are they the unknown like the tortoise. They’re the characters themselves. Mao Dao Zu Shi offers a pretty resounding rebuke of society and its tendency to drive people to monstrous deeds, and does this in a number of fascinating ways. The characters’ flaws are almost always two-sided coins in that their flaws are also their strengths, but with the right (or really, wrong) circumstances, they can destroy the best parts of them and turn them into monsters. 

And hooray, these ideas continue to be explored in the novel, and as the story approaches its climax, it becomes pretty blunt as well. Jin Ling’s arc kind of encapsulates all of these ideas, as in the end he’s left realizing he cannot hate any of the people he spent years blaming for his parents’ deaths, and realizes that that doesn’t mean it’s his fault. The series doesn’t point to him and say “look how wrong you were!” but rather “it’s hard, isn’t it?” Because Jin Ling’s hatred was not created in a vacuum; instead, it stems from the messages society gives him: its tendency to label people as villains, its messages of toxic masculinity and homophobia, all of which are constrained in an overall lack of empathy.

Jin Ling’s realization includes the overall basic themes that shit happens in life that you don’t deserve, because the world is messed up, and people who do things that hurt you have also had things done to them that they didn’t deserve, and had no choice in. It picks apart the circumstances--be they birth, parents, culture, pressure, trauma--that go into driving people to make the choices that they make, whether they justify these choices to themselves or whether they don’t even try. And by doing so, as a story, Mao Dao Zu Shi encourages empathy as a way to move forward, to redeem yourself, to forgive or to at the very least take a step. I mean, empathy is literally the name of a technique that saves them all in Yi City.

Wei WuXian, our villainous main character in need of redemption, has his tragic fall depicted in the first season of the anime. As a child Wei WuXian grew up on the streets, and even after being taken in by Jiang FengMian and his family (thanks to Jiang FengMian being, it is implied, in love with Wei WuXian’s mother), he simply doesn’t fit into society after having been left to tumble through the streets like trash for a year. He’s constantly thinking outside the box, and he channels his pain into extreme cheeriness, but it’s all a mask. He doesn’t behave, doesn’t listen to rules, speaks out when he should keep his mouth shut. Sometimes this is good, because the rules are arbitrary; sometimes, it’s really bad, because the rules are designed to protect.

This nuanced dichotomy is explored really well in his relationship with Lan WangJi, in that the 3000 rules of the Cloud Recesses are pretty restrictive, and Lan WangJi needed to break out of his legalistic life. However, when he turns to the dark arts and takes revenge on Wen Chao (the Wens represent the privileged in society--at first, that is), Lan WangJi is horrified by the very traits of freedom and not caring about society’s rules that helped him fall in love with him, because he can see that Wei WuXian is walking a very dangerous path (and a cruel one in that particular moment as well). His invitation to come back to the Cloud Recesses with him was meant to help Wei WuXian, but why would he trust society in that moment?

Society told the Wens it was fine to destroy his entire clan and family, hurt his brother, and so he went outside of it to find revenge and to stop the Wens. He’s told that because he broke the rules and insulted the Wens, he brought about the destruction of his family (hence, it’s his problem to fix). He’d only come to expect punishment and condemnation from the Lan clan, and Lan WangJi’s inability to be honest about his feelings no doubt led to his mistrust, as he bluntly tells Lan WangJi he won’t let him punish him anymore.

Lan Wangji, in contrast to Wei WuXian, Wen Chao, and Jiang Cheng, has to repress himself. His sect encourages stoicism and while that leads him to good choices in some ways, his inability to express his feelings to Wei WuXian before it’s too late leads to disaster. Wei WuXian truly didn’t believe he cared at all for him, because Lan WangJi had to keep it to himself. But when Wei WuXian returns, he goes against society for his sake. As Wei WuXian notes:

But what he hadn’t expected was that when everyone feared him and flattered him, Lan WangJi scolded him right in his face; when everyone spurned him and loathed him, Lan WangJi stood by his side.

The beautiful thing about their love in addition to all the ways they care about each other and encourage each other to grow is that it also works perfectly thematically: it contradicts societal expectations by being between two men, and no matter their status in society, it encourages/challenges WangJi to stand against it, instead of going along with his society like he has in every other aspect of his life. His brother, after all, tells Wei WuXian that WangJi’s “only mistake was you.”

Society then fears and flatters Wei WuXian, until he loses control, and then they despise him, because society always needs a villain. What they hate isn’t so much what Wei WuXian did, but the idea of him. They hate him and attribute things he never did to his name (though he did quite a lot), simply because society is like that, without stopping to consider the nuance or hypocrisy of what they need.

And Lan WangJi is continually challenged to go against society for the person he loves. The scenes at the Demon Cave exemplify this, where a mob of people show up demanding Wei WuXian’s blood even though he just saved all of their children, and Lan WangJi refuses to back down, and in the end Wei WuXian winds up saving all of their lives. But society doesn’t think, doesn’t empathize, doesn’t consider what the prices actually are. They go along with a crowd to feel like they belong, a mob mentality, really (which is a psychological phenomenon):

Society’s desire for a villain and lack of critical thinking is exemplified in the Wens. The Wens are respected among the sects at first, feared even. Wen Chao in particular exemplifies toxic masculinity as well. He abuses his powers, sexually with harassing MianMian, and in other ways as well, in that he uses the lives of other sects’ cultivators as shields, as he’s called out for, when they go into the turtle’s cave. The cave is rather a metaphor for the entire story: the Wens drag everyone into the cave under the illusion of using them as victims/shields to protect their power, but the Wens lose their power when JiaoJiao (a poor mistress, showing how society is arbitrary and can’t stick to its own rules because people are more than robots) demands they sacrifice MianMian (MianMian)) to lure out an ancient monster (lies in society). Lan WangJi stands up to them to protect her, Wei WuXian saves her from being scarred, and then it’s Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian who work together to kill the monster (their love as the thematic core of dismantling society).

But after Wen Chao’s story doesn’t end there. After he exacts his revenge on Wei WuXian, Wei WuXian destroys him in a cruel way leading to society thinking it’s okay to punish all Wens. Lan Wangji expresses discomfort with the way in which Wen Chao is tortured, but Jiang Cheng insists he deserves it. However, when all Wens are pretty much considered pariahs, Wei WuXian, who has not let go of all his empathy despite the dark path he’s walking, stands up to Jiang Cheng for their sake. He understands that people like Wen Ning and Wen Qing are not bound by their blood, and that they are good people. But society doesn’t care. Their names are enough.

The thing about Jiang Cheng is that as much as he professes to despise Wei WuXian... he’s not any different. He claims to be unable to forgive Wei WuXian for the deaths of his parents (not Wei WuXian’s fault) and the death of their sister (okay that one’s his fault), but doesn’t really pay attention to the feelings of those around him, resulting in him becoming more or less a tool for society. His sister sacrificed herself, pushing Wei WuXian out of the way, for the very person he hates, and despite the supposed nature of his grudge, he isn’t very nice to her only child, his nephew Jin Ling. The boy actually runs away from him several times--essentially, Jiang Cheng acts similarly to the father whose issues are at the root of Jiang Cheng’s issues: like he just doesn’t like him, when really, Jiang Cheng loves Jin Ling and he loves Wei WuXian.

Because what’s at the root of Jiang Cheng’s issues is that he has a massive inferiority complex. He embodies toxic masculinity, believing he has to do everything himself, refusing to accept help, refusing to accept responsibility because he doesn’t want to be weak, all because he wants to prove himself to a long-dead father. He wants to prove himself to society, and so goes to extreme lengths to exterminate any trace of Wei WuXian, capturing and torturing the ones he believes might house Wei WuXian’s soul. It’s all about appearances of strength and righteousness for Jiang Cheng, and the focus on this transforms him into someone uncomfortably similar to Wen Chao in some ways, someone who uses the power given to him as the heir of his sect to hurt others rather than to protect, even if it’s in the name of protecting.

The whole reason Jiang Cheng has this inferiority complex comes down to the societal aspects of toxic masculinity, sexism, and the like as well. There’s a contrast between the grace and respect society and the initial framing of the story offers Jiang FengMian, in contrast to his wife. He’s not a good father or husband, unable to pretend he didn’t love Wei WuXian’s mother instead, and while he’s kind to Wei WuXian, he doesn’t show his son the same affection. And his neglect breeds resentment both in Yi ZiYuan, his wife, and in Jiang Cheng, which spills over onto Wei WuXian. Yi ZiYuan’s lot in life is pretty sad, though she has no right to take it out on Wei WuXian (which she does), but as the story develops, we start to see that this idea is wrong, and the story builds empathy for Yi ZiYuan to the point where she easily became a favorite character of mine.

Yi ZiYuan’s cruelty was a result of jealousy and inexcusable, but when push comes to shove, she does love Wei WuXuan, and tries to save his life the only way society allows her to: by being cruel. When JiaoJiao demands punishment for the cave incident, Yi ZiYuan whips Wei WuXian to the point where Jiang Cheng is screaming in horror, but we soon realizes she only did it to get JiaoJiao to back off. But society doesn’t back down: JiaoJiao isn’t satisfied, and JiaoJiao demands Wei WuXian’s right hand. Yi ZiYuan refuses, sacrificing her life and the lives of her entire clan for Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, and Wei WuXian.

The entire structure of the story is about undoing a tragedy, a tragedy the world basically brought on them, but you can’t erase what happened so much as you can do your best to set things right. This stems from MZDS’s basic premise that society creates monsters and tragedies, but you do not have to be one yourself if you empathize. And part of the ways in which the characters step outside of the tragic set up is through going against society: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji acknowledge their love, Wen Ning tells Jiang Cheng the truth about his golden core, etc.

It’s fitting that the story begins with Mo XuanYu’s suicide. He is a bastard child, scorned by society for being gay and for hitting on a respected cultivator. However, as we find out, the respected cultivator was actually no more respectable--Jin GuangYao was Mo XuanYu’s own brother, and had incestuously married his own sister after getting her pregnant before the wedding, then murdered their son. Society spat on Mo XuanYu for his crimes, offering a poor bastard, the son of a whore and a respected man with nowhere to go, drove him to suicide, and it worshipped his brother without realizing the extent of his crimes.  It’s arbitrary and not interested in truth, but in scapegoats. But in expressing his pain through a way that ends his life, his story is told, and the truth comes out, and some members of society get a little less homophobic.

It’s also fitting that it ends with the courage of a prostitute whose face has been horrifically scarred. Sisi’s story sparks the motion that will tumble down all the lies in the sect, and even clear Wei WuXian’s name.

The final battle occurs in a temple, a temple built over the ashes of a brothel where Jin GuangYao grew up. The message isn’t subtle: society created him as an outcast, and him fitting in was simply fake and he knew it, but he felt like he had no options. And it took another outcast, someone with no power at all, to help topple him. And even when he dies, the reader can’t help but see how he became what he was, and it’s difficult to hate him.

The kids--Jin Ling, despite his professed homophobia at the beginning, Lin Sizhui, and Lin Jingyi, and the other more minor characters--are much more supportive of Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian’s relationship, noted to express excited shock over Lan WangJi giving Wei WuXian his hair ribbon (as a symbol of love), give them their privacy on the boat, etc. Jin Ling, too, moves from professed discuss over Mo XuanYu’s affection for men along with his hatred of Wen Ning and Wei WuXian, to respect and admiration for Wei WuXian, care for Wen Ning after Wen Ning saves his life, and respect and even support of Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian’s relationship. (You could say an anti became a shipper :P) Jin Ling’s growing understanding of empathy enables him to open up to his peers, and to open up his mind to a progressing world. 

At the beginning, his inability to fit in leads to his own misery; as he develops, he begins to form true connections, not cheap societal connections, and begins to develop. This combined with a revelation that Jiang Cheng does care more than he lets on and Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian professing their love in a temple while being held hostage with his older brother watching via shouting the line “I really wanted to sleep with you!” which is the most socially inappropriate and awesome love confession ever and then running off to get married. And Jin Ling shows us his development by crying, something repeatedly noted as shameful for an adult man (which tends to be the case IRL too), and crying freely even though he’s scolded for it, because it’s the only way he can express what he feels and he’s going to express it.

Snapshotted translations taken from Exiled Rebels Scans; further translations from @chiaki_homura on instagram!

[the-rainbow-mafia-blog]

Y don't u care abt UsUm?

// Short answer; because I feel Nintendo doesn’t either.

And now a long answer because I’ve been sitting on this rant for ages and I bothered the Discord server enough with it. I want to put foward first that the opinions expressed here are my own. I am a big fan of Nintendo and this is something that bothers me. This is no way shape or form an attack to people who love these games to bits. This is also not meant to hate on a franchise or a company. The purpose of this rant is to put some arguments behind my statements.

Sources are linked in the text. I used Nintendo but I always meant everyone involved in the making of these games.

The reason I feel comfortable sharing it now is because people have their, rightful, concerns about the upcoming games; Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, releasing in a few short weeks for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo’s newest and most succesful baby. 

Why doesn’t Nintendo care about Pokemon, according to you?

First we need to ask ourselves;

How much does Nintendo make on Pokemon?

While I do think they care in a sense the numbers won’t lie. Pokemon has made around $95 billion US dollars since the franchise came to life in 1996. To put it in a way bigger number; they make about 4130434782.61 US dollars PER YEAR on Pokemon. (This is my own math, I do not know the exact numbers per year. I divded their total by the amount of years Pokemon has been alive.) That’s a lot of money and it’s with right the most financially succesful franchise to date. 

Only a part is made by the video games $17.138 billion. It’s merchandise makes more; $64.1 billion.

I could not find a reliable source on how much it takes to make a Pokemon game in monetary value.  What I could find however is that Pokemon is making less and less per game they release. Without counting Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Sun and Moon made LESS than X and Y.  

The only main series game that made less than Sun and Moon (again not counting UsUm) was Black/White.

Nintendo knows people will buy their games anyway;

Dropping sales or no, Pokemon still manages to fatten the piggy bank over at Nintendo because people will buy it anyway. The Pokemon craze of the 90′s should tell you that. People would buy it if it had Pokemon on it. Those people are now in an age group that has money to spend, hell some even have kids. So Nintendo is smart and releases commercials like this one or this one.  This marketing is beautiful (and no, not only Nintendo knows how to do this) because they play on your feelings. Who didn’ make a friend because you both liked Pokemon? And if you grew up with Pokemon like the person in the second commercial the whole feeling and setting is famillair to you, hell they could’ve casted you and it would’ve make sense.  They compare the whole bleakness of adult life, having to work to pay the bills, having less time for video games, to that warm familliar feeling of coming home and playing Pokemon. They feed on your nostalgia; your desire to relive those moments or if you have kids, to share the feeling those games gave you with your off spring. Or your younger siblings or other family memmbers.  I catch myself doing it! When a young one comes up to me, or I see a kid play the game on the bus I get that familiar feeling of ‘Hey I used to do that!’ It’s smart and it’s a thing Disney is good at too. It zooms in on what was precious to you and now resells that feeling to you. 

“Hey buy our game to feel something again. The world sucks anyway but Bulbasaur is still cute!” This isn’t a bad thing! Nintendo is a company and at the end of the day they need to make money. That is fair and I am in no way bagging on them over that. But it’s my belief that Nintendo keeps making money on the Pokemon games this way. Which leads me to my next point;

The Pokemon games come across as lazy.

Again, opinion but it feels like that. Which is also why I don’t care for UsUm; it’s lazy.

I truly believe Pokemon has some decent writers who don’t get their chance to shine. The beginnings of great stories and characters are there but it feels unfinished. Like someone bought the ingredients to a delicious dish but forgot to make them. Over the years Pokemon has a colorful bunch of characters, and the ones that stand out the most are the baddies. They usually get the coolest designs, the sickest themes, one way or another they are present in the climax but again. It’s lazy. How many of them pretend to be good or have a high moral standing and then turn out to be absolute dickbags? Almost all of them. Then they have characters (Ghetsis, Lusamine and Faba come to mind first) do something horrible (abuse of minors and playing God) and they get away with it what is basically a slap on the wrist. 

And after you beat them… for me the story stops. Yes you can go and beat some very powerful trainers and claim your title as whatever the thing in this game is and yes often that unlocks some post credit content but it’s bare. The big threat is gone.

“But,” I hear you say “It’s a DS/3DS game. There is only so much you can do.” Disagree. Phoenix Wright, Ghost Trick, Professor Layton and The Legend of Zelda OoT 3DS and Majora’s Mask all released on the same consoles and have a much richer story and even more characters. All games keep their pacing and the story really feels like it ends when the credits role. 

Then there is the overal quality. The main characters in Sun/Moon looks like someone forgot to progamme their soul in: /Screenshot take from THIS video/

I, again, easily could compare this other games who have much more expressions but let’s take one of Nintendo’s own;

There is so much more emotion in the Legend of Zelda one.  It released a few years earlier than Pokemon Sun/Moon too.

Second the frame rate drops like a hat. While some framerate drop is expected this much is a little too glaring to ignore.  To compare it to BoTW or Red Dead Redemption on the PS4, who both also have some frame rate issues at times it only happens in certain locations, usually a spot with lots of effects of NPCs. In my opinion, Pokemon does not have the luxery of that excuse. It would random drop in almost every location i was in.

The story

Every Pokemon has a story and I get that it’s basic. It’s a game for all ages after all. I get it won’t have a deep story like other games have. The basic gist of the game is to still enjoy catching all these mon’s with occasional story woven into it. But here is the thing that irks me; The little sneak peaks of story that we do get.. it’s good. It’s just so unfinished. It’s like there is a constant battle in the developers room betweeing writing a deep and interesting story (I’m not counting Pokemon Lore, just the story given in a game) and focussing on just the gameplay. There are many examples of rich story games with little gameplay (Grim Fandango, The Walking Dead, Almost every Visual Novel ever, Detroit; Become Human, just to name a few.) There are games with lots of gameplay and little story (Mobile games for example) and there are games that mix story and gameplay perfectly (Red Dead Redemption, Left 4 Dead 2, Persona 5 to name just a FEW examples) 

I feel Pokeon TRIES to be all three of these styles of games but ends up failing at everything.

Storywise they lured peopel in with Team Rainbow Rocket, like mentioned before this is for most people the reason they get drawn in; seeing their old baddies return and getting to interact with them again. It’s the same reason for me. But it feels unpolished, same with The Ultra Recon Squad. They seem like GREAT characters but again, so little is done with them that I feel there could be so much more.

Don’t change a winning team. 

Pokemon has been selling the same game to us for years. Again, I don’t blame them. Why bother. People like it, why change it? They try new gimmicks now and again and I respect them for trying. I personally like the Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu versions. While they were FAR from perfect I can at least applaud them for doing something new and interesting. While at the same time trying to lure people who only played the mobile app into the main series by remake the first game all over again. Again, I understand. I would too if I were them.

But with Sword and Shield they are taking something away; Pokemon. And with that the whole thing comes undone. This is supposed to be THE Pokemon game, the big one, the game that will release on The Switch; home of BoTw and Mario Odyessy but also the upcoming Witcher 3, Skyrim. Games that are all much bigger than Pokemon and yet they took a vital part out of it.

The video is deleted now and I won’t link to the Chinese Bootleg game as it does steal user data, but the whole issue was the animations.  The animations in the bootleg were GOOD. And if we remember the amount of Pokemon makes per year they can afford themselves a team of good animators. This isn’t some indie studio who employs 20 people and have to live of Kickstarter donations, this is GAME FREAK, this is NINTENDO. And it’s not like they can’t, please remember Pokemon Stadium.  Look at the animation on that. Now remember that Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, ALSO came out for the Nintendo 64 and got a beautiful update on the 3DS. If they can do that, surely they can port the animations.

And yes, I’m hearing you. You say that there are a lot of Pokemon.. but they’re taking a lot of them out of Sword and Shield. So there is no excuse for the battles to look like this. And remember this is the same console that has BoTW, one of the most applauded games in recent gaming history. A game with tons of content, tons of NPCs, tons of Items and has almost none of the issues Pokemon has.

I don’t care about USUM because it’s a lazy cash grab that adds nothing new to the table except some side story that doesn’t do anything to the main story. Play UsuM, Play SuMo, you’re basically getting the same game. Nintendo is smart and tries to sell you the same game twice due to a Pokemon being unique to a game. Meaning that if you want them all, you’re going to have to fork over 120 US dollars and guess what? That version is almost sold out where I live. So it’s working. And I don’t blame them. I am impressed.

Because I get the feeling that, with absolutely minimum effort they are forking in insane amounts of money.  Nintendo is a company. They need money. I don’t blame them for doing the things they do. I am however, entitled to my opinion and despite everything said above I will see myself getting a copy of Sword or Shield in the future. Because that is how it always is. Because I too, want to relive the moments of my youth when the biggest concern I had was chosing my starter.

[theadmiringbog]

The most basic idea of strategy is the application of strength against weakness. Or, if you prefer, strength applied to the most promising opportunity.

--

Yet this whole midlevel framework misses two huge, incredibly important natural sources of strength: Having a coherent strategy—one that coordinates policies and actions. A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength through the coherence of its design. Most organizations of any size don’t do this. Rather, they pursue multiple objectives that are unconnected with one another or, worse, that conflict with one another.                 

--

The creation of new strengths through subtle shifts in viewpoint. An insightful reframing of a competitive situation can create whole new patterns of advantage and weakness.                

--

Half of what alert participants learn in a strategy exercise is to consider the competition even when no one tells you to do it in advance.                

--

Whenever an organization succeeds greatly, there is also, at the same time, either blocked or failed competition. Sometimes competition is blocked because an innovator holds a patent or some other legal claim to a temporary monopoly. But there may also be a natural reason imitation is difficult or very costly. Wal-Mart’s advantage must stem from something that competitors cannot easily copy, or do not copy because of inertia and incompetence.                

--

The oft-forgotten cost of decentralization is lost coordination across units. Stores that do not choose the same vendors or negotiate the same terms cannot benefit from an integrated network of data and transport. Stores that do not share detailed information about what works and what does not cannot benefit from one another’s learning.                

--

Tradition saw discounting as tied to urban densities, whereas Sam Walton saw a way to build efficiency by embedding each store in a network of computing and logistics. Today we call this supply-chain management, but in 1984 it was as an unexpected shift in viewpoint. And it had the impact of David’s slung stone.                

--

To detect a bad strategy, look for one or more of its four major hallmarks: 

Fluff. 

Fluff is a form of gibberish masquerading as strategic concepts or arguments. It uses “Sunday” words (words that are inflated and unnecessarily abstruse) and apparently esoteric concepts to create the illusion of high-level thinking. 

Failure to face the challenge. 

Bad strategy fails to recognize or define the challenge. When you cannot define the challenge, you cannot evaluate a strategy or improve it. 

Mistaking goals for strategy. 

Many bad strategies are just statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming obstacles. 

Bad strategic objectives. 

A strategic objective is set by a leader as a means to an end. Strategic objectives are “bad” when they fail to address critical issues or when they are impracticable.                

--

Describing a destination is no substitute for developing a comprehensive roadmap for how the country will achieve its stated goals.              

--

“All too much of what is put forward as strategy is not. The basic problem is confusion between strategy and strategic goals.” With regard to the recent editions of the national security strategy, it said ���when you look closely at either the 2002 or 2006 documents, all you find are lists of goals and sub-goals, not strategies.”                

--

Fluff is superficial restatement of the obvious combined with a generous sprinkling of buzzwords. 

Fluff masquerades as expertise, thought, and analysis. As a simple example of fluff in strategy work, here is a quote from a major retail bank’s internal strategy memoranda: “Our fundamental strategy is one of customer-centric intermediation.” The Sunday word “intermediation” means that the company accepts deposits and then lends them to others. In other words, it is a bank. The buzz phrase “customer-centric” could mean that the bank competes by offering depositors and lenders better terms or better service. But an examination of its policies and products does not reveal any distinction in this regard. The phrase “customer-centric intermediation” is pure fluff. Pull off the fluffy covering and you have the superficial statement “Our bank’s fundamental strategy is being a bank.”                

--

A strategy is a way through a difficulty, an approach to overcoming an obstacle, a response to a challenge. If the challenge is not defined, it is difficult or impossible to assess the quality of the strategy. And if you cannot assess a strategy’s quality, you cannot reject a bad strategy or improve a good one.                

--

If you fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, you don’t have a strategy. Instead, you have either a stretch goal, a budget, or a list of things you wish would happen.                

--

“This 20/20 plan is a very aggressive financial goal,” I said. “What has to happen for it to be realized?” Logan tapped the plan with a blunt forefinger. “The thing I learned as a football player is that winning requires strength and skill, but more than anything it requires the will to win—the drive to succeed. The managers and staff in this company have worked hard, and the transition to digital technologies was handled well. But there is a difference between working hard and having your eye on the prize and the will to win. Sure, 20/20 is a stretch, but the secret of success is setting your sights high. We are going to get moving and keep pushing until we get there.”                

--

“This is what Jack Welch says,” he told me. The text read: “We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible.” “That’s what we are going to do here,” said Logan.                

--

What I would advise is that you first work to discover the very most promising opportunities for the business. Those opportunities may be internal, fixing bottlenecks and constraints in the way people work, or external. To do this, you should probably pull together a small team of people and take a month to do a review of who your buyers are, who you compete with, and what opportunities exist.                

--

Chad Logan thanked me and, a week later, retained someone else to help him. The new consultant took Logan and his department managers through an exercise he called “Visioning.” The gist of it was the question “How big do you think this company can be?” In the morning they stretched their aspirations from “bigger” to “very much bigger.” Then, in the afternoon, the facilitator challenged them to an even grander vision: “Think twice as big as that,” he pressed. Logan was pleased. I was pleased to be elsewhere engaged.                

--

Effective senior leaders don’t chase arbitrary goals. 

Rather, they decide which general goals should be pursued. 

And they design the subgoals that various pieces of the organization work toward. 

Indeed, the cutting edge of any strategy is the set of strategic objectives (subgoals) it lays out. One of the challenges of being a leader is mastering this shift from having others define your goals to being the architect of the organization’s purposes and objectives.                

--

To help clarify this distinction it is helpful to use the word “goal” to express overall values and desires and to use the word “objective” to denote specific operational targets. Thus, the United States may have “goals” of freedom, justice, peace, security, and happiness. It is strategy which transforms these vague overall goals into a coherent set of actionable objectives—defeat the Taliban and rebuild a decaying infrastructure.                

--

A leader’s most important job is creating and constantly adjusting this strategic bridge between goals and objectives.                

--

These sorts of broad “goals” work like the rules of football in that they rule out a great many actions without specifying what the team should actually do.                

--

A long list of “things to do,” often mislabeled as “strategies” or “objectives,” is not a strategy. It is just a list of things to do.                

Such lists usually grow out of planning meetings in which a wide variety of stakeholders make suggestions as to things they would like to see done. Rather than focus on a few important items, the group sweeps the whole day’s collection into the “strategic plan.” Then, in recognition that it is a dog’s dinner, the label “long-term” is added so that none of them need be done today.                

--

A high rate of community involvement might be a very desirable state of affairs. But it is hardly a strategy. It is a blue-sky objective.                

--

The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: 

A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the challenge. A good diagnosis simplifies the often overwhelming complexity of reality by identifying certain aspects of the situation as critical. 

A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge. This is an overall approach chosen to cope with or overcome the obstacles identified in the diagnosis. 

A set of coherent actions that are designed to carry out the guiding policy. These are steps that are coordinated with one another to work together in accomplishing the guiding policy.                

--

In business, the challenge is usually dealing with change and competition. The first step toward effective strategy is diagnosing the specific structure of the challenge rather than simply naming performance goals. The second step is choosing an overall guiding policy for dealing with the situation that builds on or creates some type of leverage or advantage. The third step is the design of a configuration of actions and resource allocations that implement the chosen guiding policy.                

--

A great deal of strategy work is trying to figure out what is going on. Not just deciding what to do, but the more fundamental problem of comprehending the situation.                

--

Jen-Hsun Huang reformulated the company’s strategy. Key inputs came from a temporary technical advisory board made up of both insiders and expert outsiders.                

--

A new strategy is, in the language of science, a hypothesis, and its implementation is an experiment. As results appear, good leaders learn more about what does and doesn’t work and adjust their strategies accordingly.                

--

... in business, where an executive can choose an action based on gut feel and, even a year later, no one will know whether it was a good choice.                

--

In the same way, a good business strategy deals with the edge between the known and the unknown. Again, it is competition with others that pushes us to edges of knowledge. Only there are found the opportunities to keep ahead of rivals.                

--

Given that we are working on the edge, asking for a strategy that is guaranteed to work is like asking a scientist for a hypothesis that is guaranteed to be true—it is a dumb request.                

--

It was 1890, and there was a cocktail party here in Pittsburgh. All the movers and shakers were there, including Carnegie. He held court in a corner of the room, smoking a cigar. 

He was introduced to Frederick Taylor, the man who was becoming famous as an expert on organizing work. 

“Young man,” said Carnegie, squinting dubiously at the consultant, “if you can tell me something about management that is worth hearing, I will send you a check for ten thousand dollars.” 

Now, ten thousand dollars was a great deal of money in 1890. Conversation stopped as the people nearby turned to hear what Taylor would say. 

“Mr. Carnegie,” Taylor said, “I would advise you to make a list of the ten most important things you can do. And then, start doing number one.” 

And, the story goes, a week later Taylor received a check for ten thousand dollars.                

--

Taylor’s assignment was to think through the intersection between what was important and what was actionable. Carnegie paid because Taylor’s list-making exercise forced him to reflect upon his more fundamental purposes and, in turn, to devise ways of advancing them.                

--

The problem is that there might be better ideas out there, just beyond the edge of our vision. But we accept early closure because letting go of a judgment is painful and disconcerting. To search for a new insight, one would have to put aside the comfort of being oriented and once again cast around in choppy waters for a new source of stability. There is the fear of coming up empty-handed. Plus, it is unnatural, even painful, to question our own ideas.                

Thus, when we do come up with an idea, we tend to spend most of our effort justifying it rather than questioning it. That seems to be human nature,                

--

The creation of new higher-quality alternatives requires that one try hard to “destroy” any existing alternatives, exposing their fault lines and internal contradictions. I call this discipline create-destroy. Trying to destroy your own ideas is not easy or pleasant. It takes mental toughness to pick apart one’s own insights. In my own case, I rely on outside help—I invoke a virtual panel of experts that I carry around in my mind.                

--

Social herding presses us to think that everything is OK (or not OK) because everyone else is saying so. The inside view presses us to ignore the lessons of other times and other places, believing that our company, our nation, our new venture, or our era is different. It is important to push back against these biases. You can do this by paying attention to real-world data that refutes the echo-chamber chanting of the crowd—and by learning the lessons taught by history and by other people in other places.

[bookwormbambi]

Mega Update!

05/05/2019

Hello my friends! Sunday is here and that means that it is time for some big updates and I’m so excited that I’m practically jumping out of my chair (although all of the coffee may have contributed to that one).

So on the list of more recent things I just celebrated my 22nd birthday on Monday and I am so so grateful for all of the love and kindness that had been sent my way and I just really love everyone :-)

I’m also now about four months into my new job in restaurant management and it’s a bit crazy still but we do feel a lot more settled in and I feel a lot more knowledgable about my job. My schedule has been fairly hectic but I told them when they hired me that I would be going back to school in June which they are fully prepared for. Everyone’s been great, and I’ve been very grateful for the new experience and the learning experience that comes with first time management. I still have so much to learn but honestly I feel right at home with all of the work I do with people, and I feel like the skills I’m learning are great stepping stones when it comes to patient care, because the main thing I’m learning is how to work with people, to be more empathetic, and to motivate. Obviously restaurant life is a bit different than medicine, but it is a good stepping stone, at least in my opinion.

So that’s a little bit about my personal life, but I know that what y’all are really here for is the school updates. I’ve been teasing this new school program for months now and I’ve been waiting for so long to give you all some real updates. For a long time I was just waiting, and the plan was to make a sort of mini-series about the process of applying and (hopefully) getting in, but then everything went down in the course of a few days and I’m actually already at the end of the application process when I literally just turned the app in five days ago.

So, let’s talk about it.

If I haven’t already stated it, the program that I’m applying for is Respiratory Therapy. It’s a two-year program that ends with my receiving an Associate’s Degree in Science, as well as eligibility for board certification to become a licensed Respiratory Therapist and be in the field by the time I turn 24.

I first learned about this program about a year ago through a friend. Her boyfriend at the time was actually in the previous class and it actually came up in passing just from her telling me about how busy he was all the time. I was looking into other programs one day and saw RT pop up and I remembered her mentioning it, and I decided to look into it a bit more because, honestly, I had no idea what RT really even was, or what they did. The more I researched, the more intrigued and excited I got, and the more I could picture myself actually doing this sort of thing.

At the time the course was already in session, and the website said that the next application window would not be open until February 2019, so I waited. When February came along I checked the website every day waiting for the app to be posted and it actually wasn’t up until the 1st of March. I checked the website on a whim because I was in bed with the flu and bored and miserable and needed ANYTHING to get my mind off of how sick I was (and brother I was SICK). I printed out the application and filled it out without really reading the information packet because I was sick and reading was for losers who were healthy I guess. So I sat on the application for a little while because I knew that, at the very least, there was a $100 application fee which was not readily available to me because I had just started my new job, the restaurant had only just opened, and I was still doing a lot of transitioning with bills and insurance and all of that boring stuff.

When I finally mended I was ready to go to the school to turn the application in, and went through the information packet to figure out who I was actually turning it in to, when I found out I actually needed copies of my high school and college transcripts, and I had no idea how to get them. So I sat on the app for a few more weeks while I figured it out, ordered them, waited for them to get to me, etc. Then I got my transcripts and once again did not have an extra $100 lying around to go turn the app in. Or, when I did, I didn’t have the time to go to the school because my work schedule kept getting in the way.

So on my birthday (Monday) I asked my sister to take me to the school before we went on our outing so I could turn it in, because the application was due by 2 May (which was Thursday) and I was officially running out of time. So we decided we could be a little late to our lunch plans to turn it in.

The application alone is just the first part of everything. Once you turn it in, you have to take the TABE test (which is the Test of Adult Basic Education), along with five additional comprehensive math questions, and then you receive a date and time for your interview with the head of the department, some program alumni, and representatives from the hospital. My assumption was that once I turned in the application I would get an email telling me when the test was and that it would be like two or three weeks away, and that we’d go from there.

NOPE.

I went to the registration office, paid my application fee, then went to the counseling office to deliver the application, my receipt, and my transcripts. For starters, she was very pleased that I already had the fee and the transcripts taken care of. Then she told me the test was on Thursday (three days away) at 3pm.

So here I am, panicking a little bit because of how fast everything was moving, and I told her that I would be there, no problem, thanked her for her time, and went on my way back to our car. I had no idea what to expect from this test and having only literal days to prepare was not helping the anxiety.

So Thursday came along, I was able to get out of work a little bit early to have extra time to get to the school (which is only a little ways down the road) and get to the test. There was an optional information meeting beforehand which I was only able to make the last twenty minutes or so of, but I got the gist of everything, and it only made me more excited about the program. I met the head of the program, he seemed very kind. Then it was test time.

So the TABE is a 1 hour exam that tests basic reading, math, and grammar skills. Kind of like the standardized testing I had to take when I was in school. I took a semester off so I was a little rusty with quick test taking (each portion was roughly thirty questions with roughly fifteen minutes each) but I got through it, and I’m actually pretty sure I nailed it. The additional comprehensive math questions were a little bit tougher, but I feel pretty good about those too. These were five questions crafted by the department head which, according to him, were designed more to test out problem-solving abilities, and even if the answer itself wasn’t right, you’d still get points for how you got to your conclusion. Really only the last problem threw me, and I was feeling a bit rushed, but I got through it.

So I finished up, handed in my exam, and was given a slip of paper with my interview date and time - Tuesday at 2pm. Tuesday is, as I write this, the day after tomorrow. I’m stressing about the interview but he did tell us that the majority of the questions have nothing to do with Respiratory Therapy, but I will be asked about how well I understand what the program is, and, obviously, why I want to do this. I’ll also be asked basic things about who I am as a person to see if I would be a good fit. After that, I wait for the email telling me if I have been accepted, or if I am an alternate. If I’m accepted, I pay the tuition fee (which is not cheap and will require a loan), and classes start on 10 June.

So, what determines acceptance? Every year the program accepts a maximum of thirty students. The application process is all point-based. The thirty students with the most points will be accepted. Everyone else will be placed as an alternate, meaning that if someone who is accepted withdraws for whatever reason, an alternate can take their place, and will be asked in the order of their rank. 

So now I’m going to spend the next two days prepping for this interview, which is going to be my very first interview that has anything to do with my career. Medicine has been my passion for as long as I can remember, and Respiratory Therapy feels like my true calling. I’m nervous, but I’m so excited. xx